mike
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Post by mike on May 14, 2020 22:11:38 GMT
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Post by casualobserver on May 16, 2020 10:07:06 GMT
I hear that discussions are taking place about the practicality of bringing forward from May 6th 2021 the date when by-elections will take place in England.
This is in the context of discussions as to the practicality of holding the scheduled elections on 6th May 2021 if social distancing measures continue to be required then. Among the options discussed have been extending polling to cover two or three days (thus reducing the average number of people voting per hour) and a compulsory special polling place review to weed out polling stations which can’t be made anti-COVID-19 compliant.
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peterl
Green
Congratulations President Trump
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Post by peterl on May 16, 2020 14:23:04 GMT
That's all very well, and I would like to see by elections re-started asap as much as anyone else, but polling stations are not usually that busy at one time, at least not for a council by election. The greater issue would seem to be the count, which even for a small district ward would need at least 6-8 staff, plus candidates and agents, even with just 3 candidates hard to see it being much less than 15 people, all of whom need to be fairly close together to see what's going on. For a large county division, or if there are several candidates, it could be many times that.
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mike
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Post by mike on May 16, 2020 17:43:44 GMT
I hear that discussions are taking place about the practicality of bringing forward from May 6th 2021 the date when by-elections will take place in England. This is in the context of discussions as to the practicality of holding the scheduled elections on 6th May 2021 if social distancing measures continue to be required then. Among the options discussed have been extending polling to cover two or three days (thus reducing the average number of people voting per hour) and a compulsory special polling place review to weed out polling stations which can’t be made anti-COVID-19 compliant. That's interesting. One problem with a polling station review is that we could end up with fewer polling stations, meaning more people going through the remaining ones, or replacement polling stations that are not convenient and have other issues such as a lack of parking. Polling over two to three days doesn't sound good. All postal might be better but that's very expensive and open to abuse. |
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peterl
Green
Congratulations President Trump
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Post by peterl on May 16, 2020 18:01:37 GMT
All postal would mean postal vote opening sessions become more crucial and it will be more likely candidates and agents attend to observe them.
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mike
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Post by mike on May 16, 2020 18:42:08 GMT
All postal would mean postal vote opening sessions become more crucial and it will be more likely candidates and agents attend to observe them. Yep. Although if all postal the openings could be at the count only. How would the parties campaign in a socially distancing world? |
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Post by gwynthegriff on May 16, 2020 19:02:26 GMT
All postal would mean postal vote opening sessions become more crucial and it will be more likely candidates and agents attend to observe them. How would the parties campaign in a socially distancing world? That certainly wasn't the case at the all-postal European Elections. |
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Post by tonygreaves on May 16, 2020 19:48:34 GMT
What wasn't the case?
In a social distancing world the parties that would be favoured would be those that had large amounts of useful data such as phone numbers and email addresses for electors. In mot cases this is the Conservative Party that devotes a lot of resources to collecting such stuff. Other parties do as well but it's much more patchy.
Opening postal votes is a time-consuming task and could not reasonably be done at the ordinary count (other than for the smaller numbers of late arrivals which is done now). For a full election would often be done over several hours on several days.
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Post by timrollpickering on May 16, 2020 20:37:16 GMT
I also wonder how you can easily do all postal votes without signatures and dates of birth on file (or with them having been put through with care). How would you be able to verify the voter?
Postal vote opening is not an interesting task. When authorities are following EC guidance then observing it is best restricted to either overkeen activists who need to do some dull boring tasks to appreciate that elections aren't all excitement or useless officials from on high who need to see how the current process works.
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Post by johnloony on May 16, 2020 23:04:20 GMT
All postal would mean postal vote opening sessions become more crucial and it will be more likely candidates and agents attend to observe them. Yep. Although if all postal the openings could be at the count only. How would the parties campaign in a socially distancing world? Processing postal votes is very labour-intensive. If there were an all-postal election, with opening of the envelopes only at the count, then people would have to wait for several days before the result. |
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timmullen1
Labour
Closing account as BossMan declines to respond to messages seeking support.
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Post by timmullen1 on May 16, 2020 23:26:13 GMT
Yep. Although if all postal the openings could be at the count only. How would the parties campaign in a socially distancing world? Processing postal votes is very labour-intensive. If there were an all-postal election, with opening of the envelopes only at the count, then people would have to wait for several days before the result. Probably not for a Council by-election, which is what was/is apparently being considered. What Stoke has started to do at regular elections, and I’m sure we’re not unique, is conduct the verification on a daily basis every day for the four days up to and including polling day so that the actual ballots are ready to be counted at 10pm. |
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Post by John Chanin on May 17, 2020 6:57:19 GMT
I see mike is the successor to marksenior for whom everyone dies “sadly”. |
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Chris from Brum
Lib Dem
What I need is a strong drink and a peer group.
Posts: 9,749
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Post by Chris from Brum on May 17, 2020 7:37:19 GMT
I see mike is the successor to marksenior for whom everyone dies “sadly”. It is a courtesy, and a convention, to be departed from rarely, say in the case of murderous tyrants, serial killers and the like. I'm happy for it to be continued here as elsewhere. |
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Post by carlton43 on May 17, 2020 10:39:08 GMT
I see mike is the successor to marksenior for whom everyone dies “sadly”. And in my head the phrase 'sadly died' only works if in a strong Lancashire accent. Please may we have 'has died' or 'is dead' in future chaps. |
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Post by mattb on May 17, 2020 10:54:58 GMT
I see mike is the successor to marksenior for whom everyone dies “sadly”. And in my head the phrase 'sadly died' only works if in a strong Lancashire accent. Please may we have 'has died' or 'is dead' in future chaps. You can read it in a strong Lancs accent if you want |
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mike
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Post by mike on May 17, 2020 12:03:33 GMT
I see mike is the successor to marksenior for whom everyone dies “sadly”. And in my head the phrase 'sadly died' only works if in a strong Lancashire accent. Please may we have 'has died' or 'is dead' in future chaps. No. I suppose to a small number the following would be acceptable. Councillor Jo Blogs, Rainbow member for Bucket ward in Smallville, has finally kicked the bucket. He continued to claim his councillor allowance last month despite being terminally ill for six weeks. His seat is ultra marginal and this is a great and welcome opportunity for the Crystal Party to gain the seat! #byelectiongain #winninghere Cant wait to get campaigning. |
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mike
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Post by mike on May 18, 2020 13:51:28 GMT
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Post by andrewteale on May 18, 2020 17:05:01 GMT
John Caswell was a councillor for New Duston ward of Northampton council, which still exists until April 2021. He was also by virtue of that a member of the shadow West Northamptonshire council, which is due to have its first elections in May 2021. As the regs stand there won't be a by-election to replace him. |
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mike
Non-Aligned
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Post by mike on May 18, 2020 17:11:06 GMT
Thanks Andrew. I suppose it's the same as a seat that is up next year so no byelection, but should still go on a list of vacancies, the one of those that won't have byelections to fill them.
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on May 18, 2020 20:41:54 GMT
Warwickshire: Bill Olner, former Labour MP for Nuneaton, has died. He was county councillor for Nuneaton Abbey division, so that seat will be vacant until the full council elections next year.
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