andrewp
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Post by andrewp on Jun 14, 2018 16:33:43 GMT
they wont always tell you though They generally do if you are the candidate or agent and if they don't, I usually have their boss on the line fairly quickly. I have been a presiding officer at every election since 2000. If a voter asks what the turnout is I will always tell them. Then. I usually tell them what percentage have received postal votes. The reply is nearly always ‘ oh that’s low’ even if I have said 40/50% for a local election.
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Izzyeviel
Lib Dem
I stayed up for Hartlepools
Posts: 3,279
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Post by Izzyeviel on Jun 14, 2018 17:07:27 GMT
What's this telling thing you guys are talking about? people from the parties asking you for your polling card number after you've voted (sometimes before) so that they can tell which of their promised supporters has voted That explains why the old bloke outside my polling station seemed saddened when I told him I hadn't kept mine. This seems dodgy, are they allowed to ask how you voted??
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Post by gwynthegriff on Jun 14, 2018 17:10:12 GMT
Asking the Polling Clerk "what's the turnout like?" is usually pointless - unless they were at the same polling place last time, it's the same type of election, and they've got a remarkable memory.
Asking the Polling Clerk for a specific figure (be that number or percentage) may be ...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2018 17:15:47 GMT
people from the parties asking you for your polling card number after you've voted (sometimes before) so that they can tell which of their promised supporters has voted That explains why the old bloke outside my polling station seemed saddened when I told him I hadn't kept mine. This seems dodgy, are they allowed to ask how you voted?? no nor can they tell you how to vote. He could have asked for your address though. It's part of a get out the vote campaign developed in Reading. Activists canvass keep a note of their promise and cross off voters when theyve voted. I remember when you had to cut and stick every name and lay all your papers on long tables with rulers to cross out each name
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Post by gwynthegriff on Jun 14, 2018 17:26:20 GMT
people from the parties asking you for your polling card number after you've voted (sometimes before) so that they can tell which of their promised supporters has voted That explains why the old bloke outside my polling station seemed saddened when I told him I hadn't kept mine. This seems dodgy, are they allowed to ask how you voted?? Not if they want to remain there for any length of time. Practices have varied over the years by time and by location. My experience from 1966 (gulp!) to 2000-ish was: Tellers were permitted to stand outside the polling station. Often they were provided with chairs; even a table! If there was a lobby then they would be allowed in there. As voters went in they would be asked "Hello. Could I have your number please?". 75% would look at the card and read out the number; 15% would say they had forgotten to bring it, but would then be asked for their name & address which most would give; 10% would refuse, politely or less so. Agents, Tellers and Polling Station staff got on fine. All was - generally - sunny. [ There were potential pitfalls but I won't list them here, mostly involving IME unsavoury Labour types ] Then, from about 1997 (cough ...) for some reason the rules started to change (cough ...). No longer allowed inside or to sit in many cases (not great for older volunteers when it was p***ing down, or cold); barred from asking on the way in, only on the way out. ( "Can I have your number please?" "What's that?" "It's on the card that you handed to the polling clerk and which he has now put in a bin ...") We went from being people who helped the electoral process to some sort of sinister threat to public security and decency. And the same people who brought in these changes also moaned about declining political participation.
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Post by gwynthegriff on Jun 14, 2018 17:28:03 GMT
That explains why the old bloke outside my polling station seemed saddened when I told him I hadn't kept mine. This seems dodgy, are they allowed to ask how you voted?? no nor can they tell you how to vote. He could have asked for your address though. It's part of a get out the vote campaign developed in Reading. Activists canvass keep a note of their promise and cross off voters when theyve voted. I remember when you had to cut and stick every name and lay all your papers on long tables with rulers to cross out each name Why has Reading a special claim to this concept?
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Post by Pete Whitehead on Jun 14, 2018 17:30:43 GMT
people from the parties asking you for your polling card number after you've voted (sometimes before) so that they can tell which of their promised supporters has voted That explains why the old bloke outside my polling station seemed saddened when I told him I hadn't kept mine. This seems dodgy, are they allowed to ask how you voted?? You sound as if you've never participated in an election before today as an activist or even as a voter. Strange as the Lib Dems round my way are more obsessed with telling than anyone
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Jun 14, 2018 17:34:29 GMT
no nor can they tell you how to vote. He could have asked for your address though. It's part of a get out the vote campaign developed in Reading. Activists canvass keep a note of their promise and cross off voters when theyve voted. I remember when you had to cut and stick every name and lay all your papers on long tables with rulers to cross out each name Why has Reading a special claim to this concept? Just happens that it was a system developed by Reading Labour Party to help defend Ian Mikardo's marginal Parliamentary seat in the early 1950s.
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Izzyeviel
Lib Dem
I stayed up for Hartlepools
Posts: 3,279
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Post by Izzyeviel on Jun 14, 2018 18:26:22 GMT
That explains why the old bloke outside my polling station seemed saddened when I told him I hadn't kept mine. This seems dodgy, are they allowed to ask how you voted?? You sound as if you've never participated in an election before today as an activist or even as a voter. Strange as the Lib Dems round my way are more obsessed with telling than anyone I've voted in every election possible since 2008/9. Mainly in central London, but until this May have never experienced this.
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Post by tonyhill on Jun 14, 2018 19:09:56 GMT
In my activist days I used to really enjoy telling. It was a chance to sit down for an hour or two and take it easy after the freneticism of the campaign, and to chat to random members of the other parties in a non-partisan environment because it is a situation in which everyone has something to gain by co-operating to get as many of the voters' numbers as possible. I have done knocking up but eventually refused because I felt that if the candidate hadn't done enough to motivate people to want to come out and vote for him/her then interrupting their tea/Coronation Street/children's bedtimes wasn't something I wanted to do. I know...."I was One of the Winchester Two"! Still got the badge.
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Post by andrew111 on Jun 14, 2018 19:36:50 GMT
There is a long and typically comprehensive and informative preview of Lewisham East by Andrew Teale, along with the two local ballots here:
britainelects.com/2018/06/13/previews-14-jun-2018/
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Post by carlton43 on Jun 14, 2018 19:53:17 GMT
That explains why the old bloke outside my polling station seemed saddened when I told him I hadn't kept mine. This seems dodgy, are they allowed to ask how you voted?? Not if they want to remain there for any length of time. Practices have varied over the years by time and by location. My experience from 1966 (gulp!) to 2000-ish was: Tellers were permitted to stand outside the polling station. Often they were provided with chairs; even a table! If there was a lobby then they would be allowed in there. As voters went in they would be asked "Hello. Could I have your number please?". 75% would look at the card and read out the number; 15% would say they had forgotten to bring it, but would then be asked for their name & address which most would give; 10% would refuse, politely or less so. Agents, Tellers and Polling Station staff got on fine. All was - generally - sunny. [ There were potential pitfalls but I won't list them here, mostly involving IME unsavoury Labour types ] Then, from about 1997 (cough ...) for some reason the rules started to change (cough ...). No longer allowed inside or to sit in many cases (not great for older volunteers when it was p***ing down, or cold); barred from asking on the way in, only on the way out. ( "Can I have your number please?" "What's that?" "It's on the card that you handed to the polling clerk and which he has now put in a bin ...") We went from being people who helped the electoral process to some sort of sinister threat to public security and decency. And the same people who brought in these changes also moaned about declining political participation. Well said! Stupidity rules....Not OK!
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Post by andrew111 on Jun 14, 2018 20:10:17 GMT
That explains why the old bloke outside my polling station seemed saddened when I told him I hadn't kept mine. This seems dodgy, are they allowed to ask how you voted?? Not if they want to remain there for any length of time. Practices have varied over the years by time and by location. My experience from 1966 (gulp!) to 2000-ish was: Tellers were permitted to stand outside the polling station. Often they were provided with chairs; even a table! If there was a lobby then they would be allowed in there. As voters went in they would be asked "Hello. Could I have your number please?". 75% would look at the card and read out the number; 15% would say they had forgotten to bring it, but would then be asked for their name & address which most would give; 10% would refuse, politely or less so. Agents, Tellers and Polling Station staff got on fine. All was - generally - sunny. [ There were potential pitfalls but I won't list them here, mostly involving IME unsavoury Labour types ] Then, from about 1997 (cough ...) for some reason the rules started to change (cough ...). No longer allowed inside or to sit in many cases (not great for older volunteers when it was p***ing down, or cold); barred from asking on the way in, only on the way out. ( "Can I have your number please?" "What's that?" "It's on the card that you handed to the polling clerk and which he has now put in a bin ...") We went from being people who helped the electoral process to some sort of sinister threat to public security and decency. And the same people who brought in these changes also moaned about declining political participation. Well, it is spotty, but the arrangements you recall from Before The Flood still persist at at least one polling station in Kirklees I am aware of! The practice of telling has certainly decayed away however, and I suspect the changes you mention are more due to the unfamiliarity of Presiding Officers with the practice than any Blairite plot to undermine democracy!
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spqr
Non-Aligned
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Post by spqr on Jun 14, 2018 20:11:16 GMT
Years ago there was an article in the New Statesman that suggested that the ballot papers cast for 'extremist' candidates were put to one side for inspection by a Special Branch officer. It's piffle. I worked with colleagues with very strong views...unless they were voting Liberal in the privacy of the booth. It came from a response to The Guardian 'Notes and Queries' section on 23 March 1992. One Michael Wilson wrote that in the town where he was a council officer in the 1960s, after each election, the town clerk would go through the votes cast for Communist candidates, cross-reference the serial number on the ballot, identify the voters, and send the list to Special Branch. I wish I could find the original article. For some reason this edition is missing from the Guardian's digital archive. Here it is:
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Post by andrew111 on Jun 14, 2018 20:36:53 GMT
It came from a response to The Guardian 'Notes and Queries' section on 23 March 1992. One Michael Wilson wrote that in the town where he was a council officer in the 1960s, after each election, the town clerk would go through the votes cast for Communist candidates, cross-reference the serial number on the ballot, identify the voters, and send the list to Special Branch. I wish I could find the original article. For some reason this edition is missing from the Guardian's digital archive. Here it is:
Including one from as recently as 2008, where prisoners in Wetherby Open Prison were observed apparently correlating votes with voters in return for "snout"
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Izzyeviel
Lib Dem
I stayed up for Hartlepools
Posts: 3,279
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Post by Izzyeviel on Jun 14, 2018 22:12:49 GMT
We need to change the way we count votes, its too slow. If this was America we'd all be in bed by now. How hard can it be? #bored
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2018 22:13:56 GMT
We need to change the way we count votes, its too slow. If this was America we'd all be in bed by now. How hard can it be? #bored we have trialed other voting methods in local elections
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Jack
Reform Party
Posts: 8,165
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Post by Jack on Jun 14, 2018 22:15:32 GMT
We need to change the way we count votes, its too slow. If this was America we'd all be in bed by now. How hard can it be? #bored More ballot papers, Stephanie!
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Post by LDCaerdydd on Jun 14, 2018 22:15:32 GMT
We need to change the way we count votes, its too slow. If this was America we'd all be in bed by now. How hard can it be? #bored Four hours for a stand alone election in an urban seat on a low turnout is bloody ridiculous.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2018 22:20:04 GMT
We need to change the way we count votes, its too slow. If this was America we'd all be in bed by now. How hard can it be? #bored Four hours for a stand alone election in an urban seat on a low turnout is bloody ridiculous. low staff numbers
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