Election day

[liv]

Generally good voting experience today. My polling station is the student union, and I was a bit disconcerted to see the square outside the building filled with canvassers. They assured me they were technically outside the exclusion zone, because the polling station was using the accessible entrance at the other side of the building. Still, it did mean potential voters approaching from the obvious direction would pretty much have to go through a gallery of hawkers shouting which way to vote and thrusting leaflets at them, which is the sort of thing that exclusion zones are supposed to prevent. Mostly Labour and Green, as they're the two major contenders here.

The polling station was indeed accessible to wheelchair users, though the dropped kerb was in a puddle (not the election officers' fault that it's raining, this is a general problem with student union), and they'd put the Polling Station sign kind of in the middle of the ramp, making it potentially a slightly awkward turn in a wheelchair. I wouldn't like to vote in the SU ballroom if I had a sensory disability, though, it's a big, echoey, very poorly lit space.

I deliberately chose what I thought would be a fairly quiet time of day, when the showery rain was definitely on the side of rain, mid-morning and in the middle of the hour so not likely to fall just after a class ended. Even so, there was a queue of about a dozen people ahead of me, and the officers commented that they couldn't remember seeing so many people at this polling station in previous elections.

While I was waiting there, I saw them politely and helpfully turn away a student who didn't speak English fluently and hadn't realized that she needed to register. And I didn't want to eavesdrop too much but one of them was on the phone trying to sort out another voter's problems with registration, explaining that she could still vote if it could get sorted by 5 today.

When it came to my turn I explained that I'd already cast a postal vote in another constituency, so I just wanted the borough and parish ballot papers. The information that I'm dual registered was not recorded anywhere, which is probably as it should be, but the officer was mildly confused, though rose to the occasion. He did joke, "oh, good thing you're so honest", which I thought inappropriate, so I said in my most carrying voice "well, I'm hardly going to commit electoral fraud, am I?"

And then I walked home through the bluebell wood as the sun came out after the rain, and felt at least briefly good about myself, though I'm still dreading pretty much any likely outcome of this election.

FYI, if you're thinking of voting in the UK:

naath has clear and useful information. In fact, I'm particularly grateful to her for explaining that I, and others in my position, can in fact vote in local elections in two different places, as long as you only vote once in the General Election. Also to ghoti for clarifying ambiguities in the rules

lethargic_man put up on FB the following summary of major policies. Sorry for the image of text; here's a transcription. 38degrees are not entirely politically neutral but they're not affiliated with any one party either and do try to give relatively unbiased information. Of course there is bias in what they consider to be the six "key issues", and I think it's not quite a coincidence that their table comes out with all ticks under Labour and Green and mostly crosses for Con and UKIP. But at least they're not outright lying about what the parties intend to do. I also can't easily find data for Wales, Scotland or NI or at least not for the parties that are only standing in the regions.

Election forecast has reasonably detailed and reasonably unbiased electoral predictions, based on reputable polls and quoted with confidence intervals. I mean, polls are only as good as polls ever are, but again, it's a site that's not actively lying in order to try to influence potential tactical votes. They're predicting a Conservative plurality (and a zero percent chance of a majority government!), and they probably know what they're talking about more than me with my prediction of a Labour plurality.

ewx has a nice summary of election leaflets for Cambridge.

I'm also extremely grateful to everybody who's volunteered for the election, campaigning, voter education and all that proper boots on the ground activism stuff, especially people like cjwatson and naath who got up scarily early this morning to distribute Good Morning leaflets before most people leave for work. And grateful to everyone who has voted or will be voting for a better society today, even if we disagree about which party is most likely to deliver that. And I appreciate my friends who've explained why they support they party they do in detail and without just repeating party slogans. rmc28 and davidgillon come to mind especially, but just everybody who has had civilized, thoughtful discussions about fraught issues, you're making democracy better and you deserve kudos.

Comments

Transcription of 38degrees' Key Issues table

[liv]

	Con	Lab	LD	UKIP	Green
Private companies should not be able to compete for all NHS contracts	✗	✓	–	✓	✓
The government should raise new taxes to fund the NHS	✗	✓	✓	✗	✓
The government should restrict zero hour contracts	✗	✓	✓	✗	✓
The "bedroom tax" should be scrapped	✗	✓	✗	✓	✓
There should be a limit on the amount landlords can increase rent each year	✗	✓	–	✗	✓
The government should set targets for carbon emission reduction	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓

[ayebydan]

Our family always go together after dinner and take the dogs with us. Mum and I go in first and then go and dog sit. Our local station is a primary school so it is fantastic for access which is awesome. However, the ...shelf(?) that you put your paper itself on is too high for someone in a wheelchair I think, or indeed for those with dwarfism. I'm now curious as to how that is handled because I know there wheelchair users and little people in this sector.

I've not said much, which is rare for me, because well I'm just exhausted with it all by now but also because of the way the SNP is being demonised by everyone all over the country. It has been really awkward and irritating to see. I feel like if the Tories get back in there will be a lot of 'it is Scotland's fault' going on.

I got really confused for a second there! I forgot you vote for multiple things in England at the general election. I'm pretty sure we vote for councils and such later. Not that it matters. I know where I'd vote if the paper did appear. In fact I'm excited about council elections because there are mutterings of the Greens getting in our seat. Sadly everything else is part of 'the bigger picture' that looms above us and sometimes means Scotland's vote these days is not entirely as it seems.

[liv]

That sounds a lovely tradition, the whole family and the dogs going to vote together :-) IMO polling stations should at a bare minimum have one booth with a low enough shelf for full-time wheelchair users and Little People to use; voting accessibility is nothing like as good as it should be on the ground. This is why I always report on it when I vote, it's an issue I think should have more visibility.

And I do feel sorry for actual Scottish people, cos the England-centric media are utterly awful at reporting Scottish political issues. The almost literal demonizing of the SNP is a particularly bad example.

[davidgillon]

38degrees are not entirely politically neutral but they're not affiliated with any one party either and do try to give relatively unbiased information. Of course there is bias in what they consider to be the six "key issues",

Disabled people had to take them to task a few years ago over blatant manipulation of what they considered important (badgers yes, disability cuts not so much, never mind the actual voting on their site). I accidentally ended up leading that, but sad to say little changed and I ultimately felt their response to me was being used as an excuse to do nothing else. I don't have much time for them these days :(

And I appreciate my friends who've explained why they support they party they do in detail and without just repeating party slogans. [personal profile] rmc28 and [personal profile] davidgillon come to mind especially

:)

[liv]

Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of 38degrees at all, but it's useful to have some summary information about what the parties are actually saying, that doesn't come from a particular party or a news source with strong party ties.

I don't think it's even a case of manipulating what counts as important; their priorities are simply not mine. Like their chosen issues about the NHS are weirdly awkward. I would have liked to see something like: The government will keep the NHS publicly funded and publicly owned, and healthcare will continue to be free at the point of access and allocated based on medical need. Or something about mental health policies, or the relationship between medical and social care. And similarly, bedroom tax y/n is one small fragment of what I think are key issues when it comes to welfare. I want to know about sanctions, about the ILF and other disability payments, protections against job discrimination etc.

Aside from disability there is nothing on immigration, and that's such an important matter of principle which really does divide the parties in this election. Nothing on human rights, nothing on Britain's relationship with the EU, nothing on England and the UK's relationship with the regions. And basically nothing on tax other than means of funding the NHS; it would surprise me if there are many voters who don't at least think about the fiscal implications of their vote or even if not that, wonder how proposed policies are going to be paid for.

[naath]

Scarily there were a number of people who were clearly up-and-about their day by the time I was out leafleting (at the recommended 0600ish, even if I felt like doing it early it feels incivil to be waking people up with rattling letterboxes in the middle of the night). I feel very lucky about my usually quite late starts! I hope reminding people that it is TODAY helps get-out-the-vote (I imagine it does, why else do the LDs spend so much volunteer time/good-will on doing it)

Also huzzah for election in *May*, it was light before I dragged myself out of bed.

I think our polling station is reasonably accessible - there's a ramp but a 90 degree turn that might be a bit tight and there is a low desk for people who need/prefer it. Plus it's quite a small church, not huge and echo-ey. There was no queue at peak "taking the kids to school" time when I voted; I'm Telling 2000-2200, maybe it will be busy then.

[liv]

Doorknocking definitely gives you a perspective on how a range of people live, doesn't it? I guess you basically have to do Good Morning calls before polling opens, but I know what you mean about waking people in the middle of the night. I'm not sure I'd dare knock on a stranger's door at 6 am, even if I were dedicated enough to get up that early. All the evidence I've seen does suggest that reminders on the day make a big difference, though. Thank you again for doing it, and the Telling!

I am always annoyed by bare minimum accessibility, like, hey, we have a ramp, what more do you want? But I appreciate it's not logistically easy to make sure all polling stations are accessible to voters with all possible disabilities. So mostly I just record this stuff to make the point that people (without visible disabilities) do notice it, unless it's really egregious.

[naath]

Oh, no knocking. Just leaflets. Knocking scares me.

[rmc28]

I don't particularly like knocking, although it's generally not that bad. Today I had one verbally hostile person ("we've never voted LibDem and we never will, I don't know why we're on your list"), two people shut the door in my face, but most people I spoke to were polite-to-friendly and a few memorable people were just lovely.

I just run out of ability to do it after a while. I think telling I last a lot longer because it's such a limited interaction (and often I can share the talk-to-strangers with other tellers). But interrupting someone in their home to ask questions is a lot more intrusive and I run out of cope with it much sooner.

Today's thought: if voting were compulsory, telling would be unnecessary, and the whole canvassing-GOTV process would probably change in obvious and non-obvious ways.