[Closed] Local elections

I vote, locally seems more important, dunno if it actually is, but at least they should in theory try to improve the locality.

Yeah, in many ways I see a local vote as more important, especially as at national level I want a mix of everything.
Its just that party politics gets in the way.

Always vote in any kind of election.

Actually kinda loooking forward to the result of our local council election tomorrow when our current crop of North Lanarkshire councillors who are openly corrupt and been there for as long as people can remember because it's just been taken for granted that everyone will automatically vote Labour, get their jotters.

Fully expect that they will get their asses handed to them by the SNP.

I'm not particularly bothered about the politics of it all, but it's high time that there was some real accountability in the process.

One of the three options for us seems to be campaigning purely on the strength of the fact that he's worked out how to use the fixmystreet website.

None of the campaign liturature stuffed through the door does anything to tell me what they will do, it's just a platform to slag off the others.

I'm finding it hard to justify supporting any of them.

I'm finding it hard to justify supporting any of them

I'm finding it hard to find out who any of them actually are.

Quite often local votes for local and parish elections (although in the latter there's quite often no vote due to no contest).
Quite often been different local vote and national vote when locals and GE were on same day. Similar for London Mayoral elections etc.
Parish councils are even more local. Didn't even realise with which traditional party my local Parish Councillor was aligned until recently. And that was only cos he did some campaigning years ago and used to be a union rep or something. Took some digging.
Same with my old next door neighbour. Local councillor for years, only found out which party she represented on the day I went in to the poll booth on my 18th birthday.

The day I walked in on an EU election was entertaining though. I think they were genuinely surprised to see someone turn up to vote.

We have the crazy Cambridgeshire mayor thing here. I'm voting just in the hope the Conservatives don't get their man in (they probably will though).

Who in the Conservative party woke up one day and thought: "I know, what we _really_ need is more politicians" ?

I do usually vote, but we don't have local elections here this year (even though one party has still put campaign leaflets through the door for them, definitely talking about locals rather than GE...)

Usually it doesn't feel that party political. This year one of our candidates is running for the council on a "no to scottish independence" platform and hasn't got anything to say about the council work. It's bizarre. But everyone else seems to be doing things on a local basis. Broadly in line with party thinking, of course, but acting local. That seems pretty much how it should be tbh, you know roughly what they're aligned with and you know the specifics for your area.

*

I'm buggered, here in my part of Norfolk, i have a Conservative MP who voted for the Brexit referendum and jokes about disability benefits (George Freeman)

Or i've got UKIP.

No-one else, no labour or others at all. So I can't vote locally as i point blank refuse to vote for either, which is wrong and elsewhere i would.

I vote as we are the only council run by a Residents Association and I want to keep it that way.

I would scrap councillors. In my town we have mostly Labour councillors, the county is mixed between Labour and Tory, our Welsh Assembly Member is Labour and out MP is Tory oh yeah the MEP is Labour (I think!) Buck gets passed a lot.

Will be voting Plaid as the Plaid councillors I've met have been x10 better than any others.

I'm with perchypanther here, in that I always vote in any kind of election - even if it is simply to destroy my ballot (which is, i believe, a form of voting).

I kind of think it is a civic duty to vote as responsibly as we can, even if we think the system is problematic. We can't fix any system by remaining on the outside.

Actually kinda loooking forward to the result of our local council election tomorrow when our current crop of North Lanarkshire councillors who are openly corrupt and been there for as long as people can remember because it's just been taken for granted that everyone will automatically vote Labour, get their jotters.

I used to work with a guy, I say work, he was the laziest bastard I've had the displeasure of working with, who was a labour councillor in Johnstone. He didn't actually seem to do anything, but picked up a healthy 20k on top of his already overpaid earnings.

It's great that these kind of balloons will get punted as you say, but what a sorry state scottish Labour have become. So many people I know will never vote for them again, me included.

It's a shame that no Government has had the balls to put RON on the ballot papers... they'd all get to see how unpopular they really are.

Ron = Re-Open Nominations

VOTE FOR RON!

Scud, in that case you MUST spoil your ballot, it does get recorded wereas not voting is simply classed as voter apathy

even if it is simply to destroy my ballot (which is, i believe, a form of voting).

Still just a waste of your time, regardless of whether it gets 'recorded' or not. If you're going just to scrawl rude words on a bit of paper then just stay at home. Honestly.

I will. Our local councillor is great - I'd vote for him whatever colour rosette he wore. Doubtless he will win a landslide victory, but then if everybody thought that he might not, so I'll be ticking the box (and it's not exactly arduous going to vote - polling station is right next to school where I'm dropping off in the morning).

[quote=breatheeasy ]Still just a waste of your time, regardless of whether it gets 'recorded' or not. If you're going just to scrawl rude words on a bit of paper then just stay at home. Honestly.

I disagree - it doesn't look like apathy if he does that, and if enough people did it it would be noticed.

Like @Perchy I vote in everything inc Local, PCC and European ... postal voting makes this easy. Local government is important and its "training" for potential MPs too.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/if-there-s-no-one-you-could-stand-to-vote-for-spoil-your-ballot-today-and-let-your-disillusionment-a7014786.html

http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/not-voting-pitifully-ineffective-protest.html

The idea that the Westminster establishment would just give up their grip on power if enough of us refused to vote is hopelessly naive because not only does it fail to explain the actual mechanism by which the election results would be rendered void, it also ignores the very real precedent set by the farcical 2012 PCC elections, which had an average turnout of just 15%, and in several regions (Hampshire, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Surrey, Norfolk, Humberside, Cumbria & Lincolnshire) the winning candidate garnered less than 5% of the eligible vote! Did any of these new PCCs refuse to accept their £65,000 - £85,000 per year jobs because of a lack of political mandate? Of course they bloody didn't!

Our parish council elections are something like pick 12 candidates from 14 applicants, so it does seem a bit of a futile vote.

I'll be voting, however, very disappointed in the lack of political parties putting candidates forward.

Only two parties standing, the choice is between Labour and Plaid Cymru.

Ok for me, as I feel Plaid will do a very good job locally , but there are a lot of people who won't vote for either of these socialist parties.

I vote and vote and vote some more ... 😆

[img] [/img]

bikebouy - Member

Who is your leader?

This bloke?

[img] https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSSaTIJAVA8PgvMCDnSS5agxErEZ7U-4PSrHF7XDpqtIb8l8far [/img]

or this ... ?

[img] [/img]

😆

I'd take either of those over what we have currently, chewy. At least both of those are competent at their jobs.

I vote for the independent ones and none of the rest.

3 mins and 18 secs.

That's how long it added to my day to vote this morning on the way to work.

About the same amount of time it took to put out the bins.

But at least putting the bins out was productive and had a tangible positive effect.

I dunno what sort of area you live in Jamie but in my "Burgh" of Kirkcudbright i hope voting will make a difference, I voted earlier on my way back home from a sunrise pedal along the coast for a change to current situation (independent then SNP), We've had two main tory councillors for years, both nice enough women but i personally feel that councillors who are millionaire farmers and have successfully lobbied for a £3 million conversion of our town hall into a ****ing art gallery have sod all relevance to my life and those who surround me yet the local kids have been trying to get a skate park built in the town for 10+ years, the community centre has been shut due to insufficient funds - I could rant for quite a while but it's too nice outside so i'm away to eat my breakfast in the sun.

perchypanther - Member

3 mins and 18 secs.

That's how long it added to my day to vote this morning on the way to work.

About the same amount of time it took to put out the bins.

I suspect I might have been even a little quicker - they've plonked a portacabin 20 metres from the end of our drive.

Almost comedy sized ballot paper with 20ish candidates on it, choose 4.

My wife is looking forward to it, one of the candidates is a friend of a relative or something, the family all vote for her, some have placards in their garden, she HATES her, can't wait to vote for anyone else.

Oh, I am voting, and live in hope it will make a difference, but usually doesn't.

I still vote - though in my mum's ward I don't know any of them (other than an SNP person who is pretty rubbish. The other two SNP councillors have stood down, which is a shame). Since she didn't know anyone, and none appealed, she spoilt her paper..

Have just voted, along with our 17yo daughter voting for first time..

But at least putting the bins out was productive and had a tangible positive effect

pretty quiet at my polling station this morning. I think they were just pleased to see someone, anyone...

independent for me, given he was the only candidate I could actually find anything significant about.

#LibDems4Lyfe

Will Patterson...

4 candidates in my area standing for one place as a County Councillor. 3 main parties plus a green, no indy candidate here.

Given these are supposed to be genuinely representing the areas they are standing for election in (as opposed to an MP that allegedly does but then has to follow party lines a lot of the time), I'm dismayed to find that 3 of them don't even live in the area. Two are at least nearby, and one* lives in the posh houses over on the other side of town.

* go on, guess.

We could vote for two candidates for county council and five for local parish. Of the six candidates for parish, five were from the North East party* and the NE party were the only ones to bother their arses to put a flyer out or even send a body to the polling station to say 'good morning' to people.

* socialist

According to our Tory candidate for Bassetlaw (not a chance) - at the local hospital the Children's ward is 'closing' at night because of staffing issues - not funding.

How are the two not linked?

I'll be voting, always do. A choice of 4 for 3 seats. Two SNP, one independent but choosing will be easy though as the 4th is a Tory 😉

My biggest challenge will be deciding who to put at the bottom of my list, UKIP or Tories

[quote=SaxonRider ] We can't fix any system by remaining on the outside.

52% of the country disagree with you on that one haha

I voted for our current councillor, from the green party. A) mostly because I've actually met him and he gets involved with things. Plus I had him round for a drink a couple of weeks back.

And Done.

Loving the colour of the ballot paper 😆

"I voted for our current councillor, from the green party. A) mostly because I've actually met him and he gets involved with things. Plus I had him round for a drink a couple of weeks back."

Funny, I managed to have a chat with most of our County and Parliamentary candidates last night and they all seemed fine to me, I'd be happy to vote for them all. Having a chat really did make me feel somehow obliged to vote for each of them. As it happens I'll be doing the next best thing and voting for none. 🙂

I've previously worked at the count. Where there is a spoilt ballot paper the Returning Officer has to decide the intent and if there is a vote on it. This process usually involves them reading it out loud to the candidates. Makes for some comedy statements where the paper has be spoilt with some imagination.

The STV system is too confusing. Definitely putting some voters off

Our local SNP councillor is really good. Very active in the community, responds to concerns and questions from residents, gets things done and always provides feedback and updates. She'll be top of my list.

I voted. The Options included a sensible bloke who you can have a reasoned discussion with (Ind), a rude and spiteful person (Con) and a hysterical shrieking person (Lab). I'll take a couple of minutes to help ensure the right one sits on my council.

The STV system isn't confusing though it's putting some idiots off

Fixed

Don't really see how it's so confusing? You literally just rank the candidates you like, in order. The only thing that seems to cause confusion is that you don't have to give everyone a number but that's simple enough really.

Some people seem to have a vested interest in making it seem difficult or confusing though.

I voted. Took a bit longer than expected, as I forgot and had walked a couple of minutes up the road. As mentioned above, the people in the polling station seemed pleased to see me (and I only saw a couple of other people dropping kids off at the school next door then going to vote - I suspect the turnout isn't going to be very high if they can't even be bothered!)

Not idiots, just well meaning older folk who turn out to vote but don't understand the system.

Not until the 18th here, but I have a paper with a random list of names that a google search doesn't reveal any more than their personal bio's. How the hell I am to choose the political leader of my ward based on that?

Rubbish.

[quote=franksinatra ]Not idiots, just well meaning older folk who turn out to vote but don't understand the system.

Why can "older" people not understand the system?

Candidates here can't even be bothered to stick flyers through the door, knock on doors or let us know in any way what they stand for.

I had a hard time even finding out who's standing in my area and I have no idea who these people are after I found the stupid PDF document buried on the council web site.

So why should I vote for just names? In local elections I don't just vote on party. I vote based on what the individual can do for me and the community locally. In the case of a general election, the same but also in how they'll represent me in parliament (representative parliamentary democracy, not this X Factor style referendum bollox).

Lots of people find STV confusing, including older people who have spent a lifetime putting one cross against one candidates

I had forgotten about this. Will pop down after work to vote for the local tory.

There's a valid question over whether someone who can't handle such an extremely simple concept (even with assistance - the polling station volunteers will explain it) being allowed to participate in decisions that affect the lives of others.

Quotas, surplus votes, transfer values,second preference, redistribution..

Its not really that simple

Turnout in our last county council election was 17.1%.

I wouldn't expect it to be much higher today because no one knew it was happening, none of the candidates had publicized their views and I only recognize one of them (tory) because he's usually propping up the bar banging on about migrants, cyclists and roads tax.

There was a dozen others on the list most seemed to be sponsored by their family and I haven't got a clue if they're even sane never mind worthy of office.

#notdemocracy

edit: basically what deadkennedy said.

I've just been on Google, trying to fid out any info on existing or standing for my area Hexham. Absolutely nothing of substance...
I will vote, but blind.

Lots of people find STV confusing

Yes. Stupid people. A large % of the population is stupid.

I do feel sorry for our local Labour councillor, a decent bloke who's going to get run over by the SNP steamroller.

It's funny that people complain it's a proxy vote for the general election or independence - here in Glasgow the SNP have been very good about talking about local issues, whereas the Tories' entire campaign has been "We said No and we meant it" - no mention of local policies at all.

I'll admit to not understanding STV. I don't entirely understand D'Hondt either. With four different voting systems in use in Scotland, you have to be a real election geek to care enough to work it out.

STV is complicated to count etc, but for the voter it is basically: "Rank the candidates in your order of preference"

I think after being persuaded that something as weird as FPTP makes sense and is fair and representative, it's easy to understand how people could find something as simple (*) as STV confusing.

(*simple at the front end, it's not important how complicated it is behind the scenes, if it was, nobody's ever drive a car)

bencooper - Member

It's funny that people complain it's a proxy vote for the general election or independence - here in Glasgow the SNP have been very good about talking about local issues, whereas the Tories' entire campaign has been "We said No and we meant it" - no mention of local policies at all.

Aye, same here. My dad's a No voter but even he ripped the arse out of his local tory- she turned up at his door, talked about independence, answered every question with independence, then accused the SNP of being obsessed with independence. And when he said he thought that was daft, she assumed he was an SNP/Yes voter. And all for a council election, last I looked nobody's trying to make the Pentland Hills independent.

(meanwhile I am an SNP/Yes voter but I might well vote Labour. it's not a proxy for government and one of our candidates is actually really good- he deserved to make it as an MP but, well, that was 2015 for you)

Mayor election here in Cambridgeshire was busy enough at the polling station this morning, not all old people either.
Lib Dems were the only one to knock on the door and judging by all the Lib Dems signs in people front gardens and windows they must have knocked on a few. A few Conservative signs in town but the the Fens around us is 100% Conservative.

I think after being persuaded that something as weird as FPTP makes sense and is fair and representative, it's easy to understand how people could find something as simple (*) as STV confusing.

(*simple at the front end, it's not important how complicated it is behind the scenes, if it was, nobody's ever drive a car)

Aye, exactly - voting systems should be simple for voters to use. FPTP isn't - which is why there's all this stuff about tactical voting, spreadsheets to work out who to vote for to keep the Tories out, etc. You should just be able to vote for who you want, with the expectation that the average of what most people want will happen.

How that's actually calculated in the background is a job for algorithms and geeks, and shouldn't matter to the voter unless they're really interested.

No local elections here today (we're all out, every four years) but if you all move to the [url=

and Springfield ward in Darlington[/url] in the next couple of years, you can vote for me in 2019. If you lived here two years ago, you could have voted for me then as well, [url= http://www.darlington.gov.uk/your-council/democracy/elections-and-electoral-registration/parliamentary-(general)-election-and-local-government-elections-2015/elections-2015/#hands ]like 23% of the residents did[/url].

Onzadog - Member
One of the three options for us seems to be campaigning purely on the strength of the fact that he's worked out how to use the fixmystreet website

Similar here; one candidate trumpets at every opportunity that he set up a Facebook group to report potholes, instead of promoting the existing, very effective, council run website. Numpty.

Had a choice of a racist, a 12 year old or the Lib Dems

(I know the punchline should be the 12 year old but I went for the libs)

Don't really see how it's so confusing? You literally just rank the candidates you like, in order.

Not really - you're describing AV. The SV system for the mayoral elections only has 1st and 2nd choices, which means that unlike AV, a candidate can be elected with support of less than 50%. There's also a good chance that your vote is wasted if you don't correctly predict who makes the run-off.

Ha, we had a choice of a fascist, racist, liar and green embryo, the Mrs voted Fascist as usual and I cancelled her out voting embryo wasting my vote as usual, I do wish the Greens would get their act together.

ransos - Member

Not really - you're describing AV. The SV system for the mayoral elections only has 1st and 2nd choices,

No, I'm describing the STV system we're voting with today, not mayoral elections.

Lots of people find STV confusing
Yes. Stupid people. A large % of the population is stupid.

Well, I certainly feel pretty stupid, rushed to the polling station after work, running late. And bashed an x in the box, didn't read the ballot sheet, and completely forgot about the STV on these elections.
makes me wonder just how many others have done this?? as it wasn't mentioned by the people giving out the sheets and ticking off names.

Here in rural Oxfordshire it could be seen as a pretty pointless excercise, however I made the effort if only to give two fingers to the incoming, self-serving Tory that will no doubt replace the previous self serving Tory, the truly odious Melinda Tilley for those of you who are local.