To think closing schools for polling in this day and age is unacceptable

[sharonthewaspandthewineywall]

There are loads of polling stations by me, yet they close the school. Again. However if I wanted to take my kids to the seaside for the day i'd be lectured about their education being more important. Also people can do an online vote.

Makes sense thanks hungry.

DCs school always stays open but guessing that's because they have two entrances one of which leads to the staff offices and rooms etc. so while there is a door into the main school it's easily monitored and no reason for children to go through it.

hunny I'm self employed. .. I'm as flexible as a worker can be. Doesn't mean I can't be annoyed that dc1 is off school on a day that I pay for dc to be in nursery so that I can work!

It may surprise you, but a lot of thought and effort goes in to finding suitable polling stations and it's not easy. As well as access to toilets, as Brecon says, there has to be suitable disabled access. It has to be well positioned in the ward and easy to find. Plus the staff working there all day would like to be able to make the occasional cup of coffee.

There are just a lot of logical solutions at ds' school which wouldn't involve all 600 kids being off school (e.g. Close the nursery for the day as it's a self contained, fenced off block... And 3yos aren't legally obliged to be in school)

ds was off school for 10 weeks, thanks to a combo of chicken pox, house move and school holidays. So don't "shock horror" me if I'd like him to attend school for a full week just before half term...

Our school was open and a polling station, they used a room which has a separate entrance. Annoyingly it isn't my voting station (but yes it is our closest school) - I do wonder whether there should be a way to vote in any polling station except when it is a local election. (Even then you could do it if they printed your voting paper when you turn up) It all seems a bit old fashioned going through paper lists surely you could have it electronically linked and when you turn up to any old polling station you can have your name ticked off and not allowed to vote again in another one. Postal voters could be ticked off before polling begins. At least another year I won't have to drag children half an hour in the other direction through thunderstorms to vote cos they will all be in school and I can vote at leisure!

With no ID required to vote, it's important the same people are on duty all day to avoid instances of personation. There is a very complicated process for printing ballot papers. Yes, changes could be made to the way people vote, but it's not a simple thing to do.

There is a historical reason for voting on a Thursday, but it's nothing to do with sobriety. It's because back in the day, the parish priest/minister/vicar/whatever was a much more powerful and influential figure than they are now, and Thursday was judged to be the day when the previous Sunday's sermon had most worn off, before the fear if the following Sunday's sermon (with personal denunciations) started kicking in. And yes, that "if" was meant to be "of" but the sluggish was MN is currently running means it's faster for me to type all this than to correct the error before posting. And "was" should be "way"... Gah.

Oldlady - I was taught the sobriety reason in GCSE History, which obviously doesn't mean it's correct. However I've just done a little bit of internet research and it appears that there isn't one clear answer, both the church and the sobriety reasons appear (the drunkenness one seems much more popular though!), but elections have only been on a Thursday since 1935 so I'd be inclined to think by then that the fear of the church would have largely disappeared. I think it would make an excellent QI question though!

There are obviously a lot of reasons for elections being held on Thursdays being taught - our economics teacher told us it was because the Bank of England used to announce Bank Rate on Thursday. Changes in the political situation could have an effect on the markets and thus on bank rate, so having elections on that day allowed the situation the longest possible time to settle down before the next announcement.

I've heard the argument about polling stations having to be well-positioned in the ward before- it was the answer given by the council for years to the head teacher of the DC's infant school who was trying to get it moved. Apparently this was why they couldn't move it to the sports centre about a quarter of a mile away, which was already used for voting in another ward. Which is strange, because the polling station for at least four different wards was the council offices in the middle of town. This included our own ward and it is at least a mile from us and even further from the furthest point of the ward.

My understanding is the schools have no choice in the matter. They are told if they are being used as a polling station.

Our school was going to be closed 3 times this year for voting - people complained to the councillors and it got moved to the church hall.
The church hall used to used but it is such a hassle for them (loads of play groups and other groups have to be cancelled) and the payment wasn't worth it. Maybe they were offered more money this time.

A weekend day would be the sensible choice. I assumed all of Europe would be voting on the same day.

How interesting, about the reasons for elections being on a Thursday! Agree, it would make a good QI question, would it be P for politics?

Our polling station is at a local school, or rather in a converted cargo container in the corner of the school carpark.
The container is fenced off from the school so none of us shady voters get near the children.

If we can do this, I see no reason for any school to be shut.

"g (when I've worked at schools which are polling stations all staff were banned from entering the premises on that day)."

Unless, presumably, they were going in to vote :o

My DDs school was a polling station but there was no way it could have remained open or been used for teacher training at the same time. There only are about 10 rooms and about four of them were being used for polling, depending on your polling card number. There were three electoral staff in each room checking ID matched polling card and photo matched voter etc. There really wouldn't be a suitable alternative venue where I live.

They were checking your ID? For a normal vote, not a proxy one? WTF?

That must be a whole other thread, surely...

Suggest to the school governors that they propose an alternative polling station. That's what happened here after a discussion among parents - they discussed it with the local scouts and then proposed to the electoral office that they used the scout hut instead.
Once upon a time the school stayed open for polling. Then it had to be closed and parents got unhappy! Doesn't mean it can't be changed.

There are lots of rules around venues that are used for polling e.g. about the posters you are allowed to display in the weeks leading up to the polling day. If I was responsible for a church hall, I don't think I would want to book it out for election day. It is not worth it in terms of the rules you have to follow.

Whereas schools usually only have posters up about children's activities. You also have to let them ion very early, I think about 5am? and lock up very late. If you are a church hall relying on volunteers, it won't necessarily be easy to find a volunteer to set up the room and then let the electoral staff in at 5am.

Yes, and I complained about this. The response from the council was it's their school and they can do what they want with it. So I have to take a day's leave and DC loses a day's education. They have also allegedly accepted money from a large shop to divert a main road from past the shop to past the school, which is now highly polluted.

Someone suggested elections should be done on a weekend day. The electoral staff, especially those who count the votes, tend to be local governent staff who get the day off their normal work, and some extra payment. If electiosn were held at a weekend, they would have to pay staff the going rate, and the election would cost much more mony to run.

Yes brecon we have to provide photographic ID to be allowed to vote, and you get a numbered ballot paper matched against your electoral card. I'm in N Ireland. I only discovered recently that you don't need ID in the rest of the UK. I think that's bonkers, what's to stop people voting repeatedly?

I think they keep the same people in the polling station to try and stop that happening, treacle. I didn't realise the rules were different in NI. Mind you, I can think of a few constituencies in the rest of the UK where more checks mightn't be such a bad idea.

Calmet - we use one of the rooms at our Church for elections - never heard of any odd rules about not being allowed to display any particular posters, it's just a room booking, which also serves the local community, and raises awareness in the locality of where our church is. Nobody needs to be there at 5am either

our school was closed for polling but it was taken as an INSET day too - which would have been taken at some point anyway. So I can't get fussed about it.

I took a day off work and had a lovely midweek day of fun with the DC.

Aren't these other schools closing as an INSET day too?

Backforgood - Maybe things have changed? I was based in a building about 15 years ago that was going to be used for elections. All tenants were circulated rules about what type of posters we were not allowed to display in the building in the weeks up to the election. I was surprised at the time, but thsi was presented to us as if it was standard.

A friend told me opened her church hall at about 5am yesterday for elections. Could she have been exagerating then?

Well, I'm not the one who takes the room bookings, but I'm sure I'd have heard some comments if some hero had to come and open up at that time.