not to approve of this Sunderland/Newcastle race to declare?

[manicinsomniac]

Surely this much haste means they're likely to make mistakes in the counting. Making a competition/game out of being first is ridiculous. What's the rush, surely accuracy is key for democracy?

Oh come on these counters are accurate its a bit of excitementto start the night off

According to the Guardian, they use bank staff for counting - a boring practical point is the sooner they finish, the sooner they get to go to bed as most work tomorrow.

I'm fairly certain that it does get scrutinised in terms of accuracy - being the first will mean oversight.

I like it. It's gloriously British. And it is a bit of joy in what looks to be a depressing night.

Distasteful? Here's me thinking some of the other counts need to get their act together and hurry up so I can go to bed!

I wish a few more would get a wriggle on, its good to discuss an actual result rather than all the guessing that's going to go on for hours.

It's when you see them all behind the journalists at the counting centres and nobody seems to be doing anything or all movement seems to be at a snails pace.

As long as they aren't wasting lots taxpayers money of course!

I'm finding the amount of votes UKIP are getting in the area quite unsettling

waves to fellow Sunderland residents

I got paid pretty well when I counted one year.

I assumed it was another example of boosting the labour electorate by offering a well paying night to as many people as they can.

Waving back to thewavesofthesea
Strangely proud that we're actually good at something, even if it is just counting crosses on paper

I wish they all would count faster! If there 30,000 votes and 100 people that's only 300 bits of paper each. So 45m is not that fast , ok so have to actual drive them there first.
It's when 30,000 votes takes 9-10h like how slow can you count.

I live here and work for the council. I've done the count before. Council staff get paid extra on top of their normal days wage so I assume the bank staff used are also paid.

We don't practice the counting but they do practice and do test runs for getting the ballot boxes from the polling stations to the count. No idea why or how this fastest thing came about.

Sunderland is always (sadly/stupidly) labour by a massive majority, although UKIP are gaining a lot of votes from BNP types.

It's one night that happens every five years, when Sunderland is the centre of attention. So why not. Don't see the problem; it's their claim to fame.

Aye aye to all my fellow mackems

Meh! It's a bit of fun, can't see the harm in having a race and as others have said, I wish the others would hurry up there's a lot of faffing going on in the background of the bbc coverage.

Oh and yes, Newcastle were just trying to get in on the action