The End of the Beginning
Well, it’s over.
The Green Party received 15.88% of the vote in Earlsdon (270 votes shy of overtaking Labour for 2nd place).
It was fascinating being at the election count. Each ballot box (from the 8 polling stations) gets emptied onto a big table, and vote counters bundle up the papers into packs of 25. While they are doing that, you try and spot how many, on average, are marked “Green,” so you can gauge which areas of the ward are strong in support, and which need work.
After the count, they invite you to inspect the spoiled ballot papers (BNP scrawled across some, “wish there were Socialists running” on others) and which ones have been awarded to candidates (those with check marks rather than x’s).
Then, a few minutes later, they gather the candidates and agents together again and tell you what the final vote is. I suppose, if there was 20 votes between 1st and 2nd, this is the time to request a recount.
15 minutes after that (i.e. giving the winner enough time to compose a speech), the results are announced from the podium and put up on a computer screen with a percentage breakdown.
Andy Matchet for the Conservatives, the winner, nearly received an absolute majority (49.7%). He approached me right after the “spoiled papers” stage, and basically said, hey, you aren’t going to win the ward anytime soon, why are you so against incineration, why not sit down with us and talk about recycling?
The Greens are a separate political party, not only a lobby force for the three “real” parties, and we have a much wider agenda than just recycling.
So, sure, we’ll engage with the council and pressure them, though I sincerely doubt we’ll buy into incineration of plastic and aluminium, but we aim to run again and again in Coventry and build up a base of voters for the Green cause.
It’s time for some time off, so I can stop being so election-focused. All the walking and walking and walking of streets has left me, well, not exhausted, but pretty tired.
I’ve got a wedding to co-organise for early August, and suddenly, that’s only 13 weeks away! We’re off to do rings in the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham tomorrow, then wedding list in Solihull on Sunday.
If anyone wants to contact me in the future about Green activity in Coventry, please do so on 07906 316 726, or, sgredding2003@yahoo.co.uk.
The Green Party received 15.88% of the vote in Earlsdon (270 votes shy of overtaking Labour for 2nd place).
It was fascinating being at the election count. Each ballot box (from the 8 polling stations) gets emptied onto a big table, and vote counters bundle up the papers into packs of 25. While they are doing that, you try and spot how many, on average, are marked “Green,” so you can gauge which areas of the ward are strong in support, and which need work.
After the count, they invite you to inspect the spoiled ballot papers (BNP scrawled across some, “wish there were Socialists running” on others) and which ones have been awarded to candidates (those with check marks rather than x’s).
Then, a few minutes later, they gather the candidates and agents together again and tell you what the final vote is. I suppose, if there was 20 votes between 1st and 2nd, this is the time to request a recount.
15 minutes after that (i.e. giving the winner enough time to compose a speech), the results are announced from the podium and put up on a computer screen with a percentage breakdown.
Andy Matchet for the Conservatives, the winner, nearly received an absolute majority (49.7%). He approached me right after the “spoiled papers” stage, and basically said, hey, you aren’t going to win the ward anytime soon, why are you so against incineration, why not sit down with us and talk about recycling?
The Greens are a separate political party, not only a lobby force for the three “real” parties, and we have a much wider agenda than just recycling.
So, sure, we’ll engage with the council and pressure them, though I sincerely doubt we’ll buy into incineration of plastic and aluminium, but we aim to run again and again in Coventry and build up a base of voters for the Green cause.
It’s time for some time off, so I can stop being so election-focused. All the walking and walking and walking of streets has left me, well, not exhausted, but pretty tired.
I’ve got a wedding to co-organise for early August, and suddenly, that’s only 13 weeks away! We’re off to do rings in the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham tomorrow, then wedding list in Solihull on Sunday.
If anyone wants to contact me in the future about Green activity in Coventry, please do so on 07906 316 726, or, sgredding2003@yahoo.co.uk.
posted by scott redding at 1:48 pm
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