EU elections, Thursday 23 May: are you voting?

I'm in the SW so Green was our best option. I voted in the afternoon and when I asked if it had been busy, was told that it had been in the morning. That suggests to me retired people (majority Leave supporters) keen to get their vote in. Hopefully the evening shift redressed the balance.

Yes, but I have good taste in friends.

Or possibly Remainers have better taste in friends

@Tavannach

Yes, but I have good taste in friends.

I live in London and have yet to actually meet or know a Remoaner in person.

Do you never go out?

@noodlenosefraggle

I live in London and have yet to actually meet or know a Remoaner in person.

@noodlenosefraggle

It's just the Yougov prediction for London, not the result.
26% isn't a majority in any way.
Brexit will have a higher share of the vote in the rest of England.
I've lost my piece of paper with the figures but (in London) 26 (Brexit) + 7 (Conservative) + share of 3 from the others is not a majority.
The big, enormous, massive, gigantic problem is Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party. Leave or Remain?? Who knows? Not even Jezza-the-walker-on-water I suspect.

I'm surprised so many in London voted for the Brexit party. I'd have thought the remain majority would be much higher. That doesn't bode well for a possible second referendum if the most remain-y area in the country returns a majority for the Brexit party!

itscallednickingbentcoppers

Thanks. Interesting, we (in north west England here) had 3 choices in our local elections a couple of weeks ago too, but just one choice yesterday.

Hasthissoddingnamegonetoo - as Tavannach says the tactical vote sites were trying to get as many votes as possible away from the Brexit Party rather than get at Labour or the Conservatives. Depending on where you are Green was a recommendation. It was here in the South West.

Okay, so Yougov predictions for London on 22 May as a percentage share of the vote.

Brexit. 26
Lib Dems. 24
Labour. 20
Green. 14
Conservative. 7 (wow)
Change UK 4
Other. 3

So by my reckoning 2 Brexit, 2 Lib Dems, 2 Labour, 1 Green and 1 which will go either to the Greens or the Conservatives.
I voted for Change UK, wish I'd voted for the Greens now. Still, spilt milk and all that.
I have had a couple of glasses of wine so my reckonings could well be wrong.

The tactical voting website told me to vote Change to ensure bad things happened to Labour and Conservatives?

More likely to try and get a seat away from Brexit.

As I said, DeRigueur, I understand why people think there is a significance to spoiling the ballot; equally, Tavannach, I understand that the voter feels they have used their voice by this. . I just don't understand what they think they achieve over and above that by writing great thoughts on the paper when no-one will remember or pay any attention to them.

I'm a lifelong Labour voter and card carrying member. I voted for the Liberal Democrats as the strongest Remain party.

No, they don't creep away in shame. They don't creep away in shame in the vast majority of constituencies where most of the electorate has voted against them either. But the dissatisfied voter has a voice and has used it. That's the important point.

Spoiling your paper is a valid action in the sense that they are counted.

I can understand why people do it, especially if there is genuinely no candidate you feel able to vote for. It's a protest vote against what's on offer. That's a legitimate "non vote" imho because you are communicating your position.

Not voting on the other hand I feel is a dereliction if your civic duty and I remain surprised by just how many people have an opinion on the state of British politics but can't be arsed to visit the polling station.

But do the candidates either care or learn anything from it? If someone writes "idiot" or "liar" or "lefty" or "I won't vote for anyone who supports May", does anyone seriously believe they creep away in shame, resolving to mend their ways, or tell TM that she must mend hers because DissatisfiedVoter wrote those incandescent words?

Spoiled papers have to be shown to candidates to agree that they're spoiled, and disregarded from the tally. There's plenty of time at a count to do this.

This is what happens when you spoil your ballot paper

I always wonder about the thought processes of people who spoil their ballot papers by writing down why they’re not voting, or why they don’t like any of the candidates. Do they seriously imagine that whoever sees it is going to lay their vote reverently aside for posterity, or give them to the candidates so that they can reflect on their shortcomings? I suspect that at best the tellers just glance at the papers, think “pillock”, and chuck them on the “spoiled” pile, and certainly there is no chance that anyone ever reads what has been written.

I know people say that the fact that they’ve chosen not to use their vote is significant in itself, but of course no-one ever knows where a spoiled ballot is a meaningful political gesture or the result of someone failing to read the instructions properly. And if you are making that gesture, surely you could achieve the same thing in a less wanky way just by putting a line across the paper or something.

I voted.

Change UK got my vote.

@Langrish yes as @noodlenosefraggle mentioned we use the Single Transferable Vote system.

Radio silence til sunday, all nations have to of had their votes before another country can announce otherwise it could sway the voters of another country to vote in a certain way.

The only way you're going to have an inkling is by looking at what people have told you they've voted, but obviously mumsnet isn't really representative of the uk and especially not the brexiteer side of it.

SNP here

Paid a small fortune to get proxy vote forms in on time when it was obvious the postal votes had no chance of getting to us in the US and back again, DD voted for the first time and cast two Lib Dem votes, plus her own.

Will we get any indication of votes soon, or is it radio silence until Sunday?

Remain votes, obvs