Foreign Perspectives

Although the polling stations are open from 7am to 10pm in reality most people vote after work so it’s only the four hours from 6pm that really matter which, as it turns out this time, can be a problem if there’s a particularly high turnout. And, of course, if one party hits the panic button after hearing the earliest predictions and starts knocking on doors and generally drumming up voters.

The question is which of these two alternatives is closer to the truth this time around. The “early results panic” seemed to be the problem an election or two ago and made those early predictions depart radically from reality. Whilst it might not seem good for democracy to have people unable to vote, if this turns out to be the reason it’s better that they don’t as it would merely serve to distort the “real” result were they to be able to cast their votes.

On t’other hand, if there’s been a particularly high turnout in some areas it’s a sign that the polling stations are closing rather early than suits people these days. That also seems to be quite likely in some areas. For example, in an area predominantly made up of commuters it could be likely that people wouldn’t get home ’til relatively late thus making that notional four hour window more like two hours which seems rather a short period of time unless there are a LOT of easily accessible polling stations.

So what is the real cause? Probably a bit of a mixture of both in reality and something that will definitely require some research by the electoral officers once the dust settles on this election.