Are you voting in the locals?

[SpidersWeb]

FredericRobinson said:

Just a Police & Crime Commissioner for me, undecided as to whether to bother or not, if there was an option to vote to abolish the position I’d be straight down there.

What was that Twain quote about voting and not being allowed to do it if it made a difference...

[Puggit]

We only have a vote for the police commissioner - not sure that's enough to get me to leave home.

[vixen1700]

It seems quite pointless voting, as where I am the voting population are made up of two demographics, low earning working class and wealthy, Guardian reading Labour supporting Hackney wannabes. Labour will always win around here, there isn't even a sniff of any other party.

Likewise about the leaflets and canvassing, zilch!

[Pitre]

WyrleyD said:

Couldn't vote because we are out of the country and there was no other option available to us:

Postal Vote - Nope, papers only sent out seven days before polling day and we were already out of the country
Proxy Vote - Nope, person who would do this for us is also out of the country.

I'm not voting, so I'm very happy to not vote on your behalf? HTH. 😁

[tangerine_sedge]

snuffy said:

PurplePenguin said:

snuffy said:

tangerine_sedge said:

Same here, but I'll be going out of my way to spoil my ballot paper.

And what do you think that will accomplish?

Spoilt ballot papers are counted and that will probably accomplish more than electing a self-serving weal willed moron.

They are counted, recorded and binned.

And not one single person gives a monkey's toss.

Fair point, but if enough people do it, then they might get the message. I personally don't agree that the PCC should be a political appointment, in fact I don't think that the role should even exist. It seems to be a home for political failures to eek out the last years of the gravy train before collecting their pension.

[PurplePenguin]

snuffy said:

PurplePenguin said:

snuffy said:

tangerine_sedge said:

Same here, but I'll be going out of my way to spoil my ballot paper.

And what do you think that will accomplish?

Spoilt ballot papers are counted and that will probably accomplish more than electing a self-serving weal willed moron.

They are counted, recorded and binned.

And not one single person gives a monkey's toss.

A bit like most politicians then

[captain_cynic]

snuffy said:

They are counted, recorded and binned.

And not one single person gives a monkey's toss.

Yep. The fraction of a percent of spoioed ballots won't make a difference.

In 2019 it was 0.36%.

I'm thinking of voting in this local election just to help kick the Tories out of what used to be a very safe seat for them. The boundaries were redrawn recently.

Had all manner of flyers posted through the door but only one of the Lib Dem candidates has actually canvassed in person.

[dxg]

Last night, I had to look up who the local candidates were.

Some leaflets had come through, but they were all about one of the parties - and only from that party. Nothing about any policies or agendas for the locale. And not a peep from the other two. I guess because this constituency pretty much always votes in the same way.

I'll not be bothering to turn out as the candidates are the same old same old. Although I am intrigued to experience the whole "photo ID" thing. I'm interested to hear if that causes any problems as a dry run for the GE...

[UTH]

Can someone explain something to me:

I live in Surrey (Surbiton to be precise) - do I have a vote in the London Mayoral election?

In my life I have not voted very often (hoping to avoid being hated on for that!) so I know absolutely nothing about my local MPs so I have no preference as to who I would vote for there, but I do have fairly strong feelings about who I want as London Mayor.

If I go to vote tomorrow, am I going to be able to vote only for who I want to be London Mayor? Or am I having to vote for my local MP and thereby voting for that person's party means I'm also voting for that party's Mayoral candidate?

Hope that makes sense, basically I want to cast one vote and that's for who I want as Mayor!

[P-Jay]

It's the wrong forum, but anyway I'm sensing a pretty unsurprising undertone of "it's not worth it, they're all the same" like language in posts that also mention "lifelong Tory voter".

Yes I'll be voting, I usually do, the process is pretty mundane of course, unless I get to witness a bit of shouting because someone didn't get the message about the new voter suppression ID rules, but I enjoy being part of the process and like others have said, you can't moan if you didn't take part and I love moaning.

[Muppet007]

Cumbria here.
Nope wont be voting.

Left it to late to sign up for postal voting. Got to much on to drive down and vote in person.
Even with postal chances are I'd forget, or don't like any of the options.

[Deranged Rover]

tangerine_sedge said:

Same here, but I'll be going out of my way to spoil my ballot paper.

I'm would love to have the nerve to do what a friend did a few years back, which was to draw an extra tick box below the official ones, write "None of these s" beside it and tick that!

[romft123]

of course, its my right

[snuffy]

captain_cynic said:

Yep. The fraction of a percent of spoioed ballots won't make a difference.

In 2019 it was 0.36%.

I'm thinking of voting in this local election just to help kick the Tories out of what used to be a very safe seat for them. The boundaries were redrawn recently.

Had all manner of flyers posted through the door but only one of the Lib Dem candidates has actually canvassed in person.

Candidate A: 1
Candidate B: 0
Spoilt Papers : 49,998

Candidate A is duly elected.

[Lotusgone]

There should be an option on the ballot paper, "none of them".

I've heard of this being available in some American states.

Until then, writing "none of them" on the ballot paper is the next best option to not bothering.

[Slow.Patrol]

Puggit said:

We only have a vote for the police commissioner - not sure that's enough to get me to leave home.

Same here.

Toss up between the current conservative and an independent who used to be a police DI.

I have always voted at every possible opportunity since 1979.

[drmotorsport]

I'm sure I did some voting last year - though they were all 4-5 year terms!? Getting messy with all these layers of local government of Town council, District council, County Council, Police/Fire tax sponge. Outcome is that we seem to be constantly asked to vote, but nothing really ever changes..

[Granadier]

UTH said:

Can someone explain something to me:

I live in Surrey (Surbiton to be precise) - do I have a vote in the London Mayoral election?

In my life I have not voted very often (hoping to avoid being hated on for that!) so I know absolutely nothing about my local MPs so I have no preference as to who I would vote for there, but I do have fairly strong feelings about who I want as London Mayor.

If I go to vote tomorrow, am I going to be able to vote only for who I want to be London Mayor? Or am I having to vote for my local MP and thereby voting for that person's party means I'm also voting for that party's Mayoral candidate?

Hope that makes sense, basically I want to cast one vote and that's for who I want as Mayor!

You'll get a vote tomorrow for the Mayor of London and the members of the London Assembly. It's a bit complicated but this website gives further info: https://www.londonelects.org.uk/

If you only want to cast a vote for the mayor, I'm sure you can do that and ignore the ballot papers for the assembly.

(By the way, though it's a controversial subject on local Facebook groups etc, technically the places where you and I live have been part of Greater London since 1965, and your local council is a London Borough. That's why you get votes for London elections but won't get a vote for Surrey County Council. It's just that the Royal Mail never caught up with this change and continued to use the old county names in postal addresses.)

[Sheets Tabuer]

Just looked up our PCC pledges

Candidate 1
I will invest in services for victims of crime, particularly support for those suffering domestic abuse.
And I will help to build strong communities by providing young people with the services to achieve their full potential and protect them from crime.

Candidate 2
Tackling key issues such as knife crime, speeding and dangerous driving and retail crime.
Commitment to crime prevention and making the night-time economy safer.

Candidate 3
More frontline police with strengthened neighbourhood policing tackling local crime like burglary, vehicle crime, shoplifting, anti-social behaviour.
Rural policing will be strengthened, protecting farming and countryside communities.
Safer roads will be a priority, with action on speeding, and new long-term plans combatting violent crime, knife crime, drugs and county lines, and action to end violence against women and girls, domestic abuse and hate crime.

Candidate 4
More police officers on the beat; a better contract between the community and police based on mutual respect; more resources for crime prevention; better representation within the police force; and fighting for an end to the war in Gaza and bringing those responsible to justice

Not entirely sure how the PCC is going to end the fighting in Gaza which is sod all to do with them but the rest are so vague to not actually be saying anything.

[captain_cynic]

snuffy said:

Candidate A: 1
Candidate B: 0
Spoilt Papers : 49,998

Candidate A is duly elected.

Theoretically true but it's never happened. I think at that point someone would say "hang on a minute"... Also this wouldn't be the first sign, a massive campaign to spoil ballots would have been organised (which is another thing that has never happend, it's been tried but never eventuated).

So I maintain that spoiling your ballot is less useful than staying home.