to ask if you've voted for a Police Commissioner yet?

[grovel]

I have. Not a very exciting experience.

[SwedishEdith]

Spoilt my paper as well. Phew,rock n roll!

[FourTables]

I feel sorry for the ndependent candidates. They had no party backing, so had to fund any campaign literature etc themselves, personally, as well as find £5,000 just to stand, which they will lose if they don't get 5% of the vote. It is no wonder many people didn't get any campaign literature.

My cynical view is that the Tories didn't want to publicise it more, because they can always rely on their well-organised local parties to get people out to vote for their candidates, whereas other parties/independents don't have such resources and so are more disadvantaged when there is little information out there...

[80sMum]

I voted - and there were tumbleweeds blowing around the polling station! I've never seen it so quiet. I reckon the turnout percentage will be the lowest ever!

[sparkleyangel]

I had no idea who was standing until I got my voting card through. Turns out there was only two candidates conservatives or labour. I voted labour mainly as a protest vote to the tories who want to get rid of as many police officers as they can. As others have said I have no idea who either of them are and think its a complete waste of time and tax payers money. On the other hand I don't agree with people who didn't vote or spoiled their papers, they could have used their vote to protest against the government by NOT voting for any Tory/lib dem commissioners.

[fortyplus]

I was the last person to vote at my polling station - they said the turnout was 8%. For a General Election where I live it's about 75%

[ladymariner]

I voted, and one of my main reasons was to try and stop John bloody Prescott getting in, cannot abide that man.

[EugenesAxe]

I did. The highlight was getting to see this woman, probably in her 40s or early 50s, get told very sternly: 'Then why didn't you amend it when the electoral register form came through?', when she mentioned they had her maiden name but that she'd been married for years.

I thought 'Wow! You've got balls love.' Fortunately she didn't take offence to being spoken to like a 9 year old and just said 'My husband usually fills it in'.

[Molepomandmistletoe]

I'm annoyed when people say they don't have the means to canvass...you mean they cant be bothered to go out and knock on doors? Use a local hall church or whatever to stand there and shout about what they plan to do in the job? They can do that in the street FFS. Canvassing doesn't have to cost a lot.

If they wanted the job badly enough they should have made the effort, after all, the jobless are being told this all the time..knock on doors, get out there, make the effort and nine times out of ten they have a damn sight less money than this lot.

[Butkin]

We voted. Don't particularly agree with the new role - none of them seemed particularly suited to the task. However given it is going to happen anyway we studied their information in the local papers and made our decision.

[Butkin]

I also researched them online and was suprised that only one of the four candidates (the one we voted for anyway) had their own site and manifesto. surely this is a bare (and inexpensive) minimum these days and didn't put the others in a good light with me.

[Snazzyfeelingfestive]

I'm quite surprised the results aren't ready yet - surely with the low turnout they could have counted them by now! The low turnout is being reported, at least.

[Molepomandmistletoe]

Less than 15% where I am. For South Yorkshire that's very low.

[Glitterknickaz]

Oh dear the Tory candidate got in here. So the Sussex MNetters posting here weren't representative then

[BoakFace]

Tory got in here too. He was my 2nd choice.

[jenduck]

I was a poll clerk for this yesterday. At our polling station, out of approximately 1800 people eligible to vote, a mere 108 actually turned up to vote. It made for a very long day!

[GrendelsMum]

Pah, a Tory got in here, rather than the candidate with experience. Yet again. Which just shows that if you put a blue rosette on a horse, they'd vote for the horse.

[jenduck]

We also noticed that of the 108 who actually turned up to vote, probably about 90 were pensioners. I don't really know the significance of this fact, but it is certainly interesting.

[WineGoggles]

It was a toss up between not voting and spoiling my ballot paper and I chose the latter. I'm sure they knew what I was doing as I was doing a lot of writing .

[piglettsmummy]

I went to the polling station and presented my card: got my paper etc. but didn't vote , instead I wrote on the paper that I wasn't voting due to receiving no information whatsoever on who we got to choose between! I then proudly folded it up and posted it. It is childish ano but I have a right to have my say that's what elections are for but my 'option' wasn't listed therefore I wrote my own!

[bamboobutton]

phew! independent candidate won here. so glad the slimey looking ukip candidate didn't get it.

[BeyondTheLimitsOfAcceptability]

Dammit, if I'd gone and spoilt my vote, my local polling station might be in the news for 100% spoilt votes, rather than ahem, that other thing...

[Snazzyfeelingfestive]

OK, if any of you wrote 'Do not politicise the police' on your ballot, that might have been it shown on BBC1 news just then! Wish I'd done that now. I voted for the independent who didn't win.