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Post by froome on May 1, 2022 10:28:43 GMT
Does anybody have an estimate of what % of people use only 1 vote for council elections with more than 1 seat up (the bloc electoral system)? My experience of local elections in Croydon in 3-member wards is that the turnout is usually about 2.7 votes per ballot paper, and that almost all ballot papers have either 3 votes or 1 vote on them. Very few have 2 votes. That roughly works out as 15% plumping for 1 candidate. Very approximately. My experience in 2 member wards in Bath is probably about 10% overall, though much higher in wards where some of the parties have only one candidate. I've stood a few times as a lone Green candidate in 2 member wards and I would guess that at least 25% of my votes will be from voters just using one of their votes. Some voters will only vote once because they want to support a popular incumbent or someone who is well known locally, even when they have a running mate. In these cases, you sometimes find huge differences between the votes for one candidate and another from the same party. And there are always some who, despite plenty of information to tell them otherwise, think they only have one vote. In these cases, the candidate in the preferred party who comes first on the ballot paper normally benefits. |
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Post by redvers on May 7, 2022 16:21:05 GMT
Heard there were only 3 councils in the 1990s that stayed in overall Conservative control - Huntingdonshire, Wokingham, and Runnymede. Is this true?
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Post by andrewp on May 7, 2022 16:25:11 GMT
Heard there were only 3 councils in the 1990s that stayed in overall Conservative control - Huntingdonshire, Wokingham, and Runnymede. Is this true? No. in 1996, at the lowest, they were down to about 13 councils. Wokingham was LD then, and Runnymede was NOC Buckinghamshire CC, Arun, Broxbourne, Hambleton, Huntingdonshire, Macclesfield, South Staffordshire, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath, Bromley, K and C, Wandsworth, Westminster. |
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Post by redvers on May 7, 2022 16:28:40 GMT
Heard there were only 3 councils in the 1990s that stayed in overall Conservative control - Huntingdonshire, Wokingham, and Runnymede. Is this true? No. in 1996, at the lowest, they were down to about 13 councils. Wokingham was LD then, and Runnymede was NOC Buckinghamshire CC, Arun, Broxbourne, Hambleton, Huntingdonshire, Macclesfield, South Staffordshire, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath, Bromley, K and C, Wandsworth, Westminster. Thought so, someone was insistent about it online and it really did seem odd. Thanks! |
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Post by andrewp on May 7, 2022 16:35:05 GMT
No. in 1996, at the lowest, they were down to about 13 councils. Wokingham was LD then, and Runnymede was NOC Buckinghamshire CC, Arun, Broxbourne, Hambleton, Huntingdonshire, Macclesfield, South Staffordshire, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath, Bromley, K and C, Wandsworth, Westminster. Thought so, someone was insistent about it online and it really did seem odd. Thanks! I think Thursdays results, and the removal of Westminster, and some one might correct me on this, mean that the only authorities that have had a continuous Conservative majority since 1974 are now Buckinghamshire, Broxbourne and Kensington and Chelsea. |
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Post by batman on May 7, 2022 19:32:50 GMT
have the Tories ever lost control of South Staffordshire? Not aware they have
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Post by andrewp on May 7, 2022 19:34:56 GMT
have the Tories ever lost control of South Staffordshire? Not aware they have I thought they hadn’t but according to my book 1973 was Con 24, Ind 15, Lab 8, Lib 1 so NOC technically, although I bet it was Tory lead. |
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Post by batman on May 7, 2022 20:10:24 GMT
that does count as NOC. Thanks.
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Post by minionofmidas on May 8, 2022 11:50:05 GMT
that does count as NOC. Thanks. but not as losing control - it was the inaugural election. Nice trick trivia question. |
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Post by gwynthegriff on May 8, 2022 11:55:36 GMT
My experience of local elections in Croydon in 3-member wards is that the turnout is usually about 2.7 votes per ballot paper, and that almost all ballot papers have either 3 votes or 1 vote on them. Very few have 2 votes. That roughly works out as 15% plumping for 1 candidate. Very approximately. My experience in 2 member wards in Bath is probably about 10% overall, though much higher in wards where some of the parties have only one candidate. I've stood a few times as a lone Green candidate in 2 member wards and I would guess that at least 25% of my votes will be from voters just using one of their votes. Some voters will only vote once because they want to support a popular incumbent or someone who is well known locally, even when they have a running mate. In these cases, you sometimes find huge differences between the votes for one candidate and another from the same party. And there are always some who, despite plenty of information to tell them otherwise, think they only have one vote. In these cases, the candidate in the preferred party who comes first on the ballot paper normally benefits. It is also not unknown for a party running a single candidate to issue material stating voters may only vote for one candidate. It is also not unknown for the official notice at the polling station to state much the same. (Reusing the usual format for election by thirds for an all-out following boundary changes.) |
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Post by batman on May 8, 2022 13:51:27 GMT
One voter in Richmond upon Thames told me that the polling clerk had told her she only had one vote and that therefore she had only cast one vote. I find that hard to believe. I don't know what her voting intention was, it wasn't mentioned.
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Post by andrewp on May 8, 2022 14:02:36 GMT
One voter in Richmond upon Thames told me that the polling clerk had told her she only had one vote and that therefore she had only cast one vote. I find that hard to believe. I don't know what her voting intention was, it wasn't mentioned. As a polling clerk, I often think that my choice, and my colleagues choice of words around that, could influence the result in multi member contests, and the training doesn’t overtly mention, what in my opinion is quite an important point. I spent Thursday saying 300 times, here is the unitary paper and there are 6 candidates and you can vote for up to 2,and here is the town council paper and there are 4 candidates and you can vote for up to 2, I didn’t specifically get told to say that though. The town council election had 2x Lab candidates, 1x Con and 1x LD for 2 seats. At least half a dozen people during the day called back to me from the booth ‘ do I have to vote for 2?’. |
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jamie
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Post by jamie on May 8, 2022 16:32:12 GMT
What is Labour’s current policy on AWS, particularly when a female MP retires (i seem to remember there were exceptions to an automatic AWS in a few cases in 2019 but may be wrong)?
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andrea
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Post by andrea on May 8, 2022 16:35:18 GMT
What is Labour’s current policy on AWS, particularly when a female MP retires (i seem to remember there were exceptions to an automatic AWS in a few cases in 2019 but may be wrong)? They will not use AWS for selections in this parliament. Legal advices to the NEC indicated that now that 51% of Labour MPs are women, AWS could be challenged in court. |
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Post by froome on May 10, 2022 8:40:44 GMT
A quick look through the Defections thread shows many councillors either becoming Independent or joining parties after having been Independent. Which made me wonder if anyone has ever attempted to calculate what percentage of councillors:
a) Defect at some point during their time as a councillor?
b) Independent councillors become a representative of a political party at some time as a councillor?
c) Party councillors become an Independent representative at some time as a councillor?
d) At what point during their time as a councillor do most defectees defect? Obviously many do so just before finally deciding to give up, but perhaps a lot of others don't.
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Post by Pete Whitehead on May 10, 2022 9:19:14 GMT
A quick look through the Defections thread shows many councillors either becoming Independent or joining parties after having been Independent. Which made me wonder if anyone has ever attempted to calculate what percentage of councillors: a) Defect at some point during their time as a councillor? b) Independent councillors become a representative of a political party at some time as a councillor? c) Party councillors become an Independent representative at some time as a councillor? d) At what point during their time as a councillor do most defectees defect? Obviously many do so just before finally deciding to give up, but perhaps a lot of others don't. The most common cause seems not to be that they've decided to give up but that their party has decided not to reselect them |
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islington
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Post by islington on May 10, 2022 9:28:56 GMT
My experience of local elections in Croydon in 3-member wards is that the turnout is usually about 2.7 votes per ballot paper, and that almost all ballot papers have either 3 votes or 1 vote on them. Very few have 2 votes. That roughly works out as 15% plumping for 1 candidate. Very approximately. My experience in 2 member wards in Bath is probably about 10% overall, though much higher in wards where some of the parties have only one candidate. I've stood a few times as a lone Green candidate in 2 member wards and I would guess that at least 25% of my votes will be from voters just using one of their votes. Some voters will only vote once because they want to support a popular incumbent or someone who is well known locally, even when they have a running mate. In these cases, you sometimes find huge differences between the votes for one candidate and another from the same party. And there are always some who, despite plenty of information to tell them otherwise, think they only have one vote. In these cases, the candidate in the preferred party who comes first on the ballot paper normally benefits. All grist to my advocacy of single-member wards (and all-off elections) at LA level. (prepares to duck) |
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Post by Andrew_S on May 10, 2022 9:38:04 GMT
Heard there were only 3 councils in the 1990s that stayed in overall Conservative control - Huntingdonshire, Wokingham, and Runnymede. Is this true? Don't know whether you're including county councils. I think Bucks stayed Tory the whole time. |
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Post by jm on May 10, 2022 12:13:20 GMT
Heard there were only 3 councils in the 1990s that stayed in overall Conservative control - Huntingdonshire, Wokingham, and Runnymede. Is this true? Don't know whether you're including county councils. I think Bucks stayed Tory the whole time. Here is a map of the results of the 1995 local elections from Wikipedia (excludes County councils)  |
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jw
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Post by jw on May 15, 2022 13:08:14 GMT
Can anyone help me with pre-1964 local results for any or all of the three Boroughs that went to make up Waltham Forest - Chingford, Walthamstow and Leyton.
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