I have cast my vote at the polling centre at Days Lane Primary School. I do like the British system with its almost savagely short campaign, soberly printed Polling Station notices and the stubby pencils on bits of string. I'm not too keen on the new style plastic zip-up ballot boxes of recent years though: they make it look as though the votes are all going to be put in the freezer in preparation for a picnic.
Have fun if you are staying up to watch the results coming in.
3 comments:
Priceless juxtaposition!
I too noticed the absence of the good old metal ballot boxes with their scratches and dents.
The old order changeth...
Well, I came from living in England and using its "first past the post" system.
Now, I much, much, prefer our preferential system of voting here in Australia.
As a Catholic, I would like to see more committed christians at both levels of government. We have a Christian Democratic Party which is trying to break in to government. A small party indeed...and one which Catholics seem to shy away from!!! They even vote for the Greens ahead of the CDP! The Greens could not be more anti-Catholic if they tried.
I make my first preference for the CDP, although I know that they will not win. But my vote is registered and it sends signals to the major parties. My second preference is for the major party which I would prefer to win government.
Now, given that my first preference does not make it, then my second preference receives my vote. This means that I have been able to register what I want as my representative and it also means that my vote has gone to the party which I would prefer as my second choice.
My vote is far more powerful than your vote under the "first past the post" system. Just imagine someone voting UKIP as first choice in England and then voting Conservative as second choice. All those wasted UKIP votes would have been transferred to the Conservative candidate and the outcome of your election would have been quite different.
JARay
JARay--- seems to me if DC hadn't have blown off the Euroskeptics in the first place there would not have been a need for a UKIP party in the first place...
Post a Comment