Westminstenders: Election Special

[RedToothBrush]

Spreadsheet of declaration times from 2017 by constituency

sluggerotoole.com/2019/12/10/an-hour-by-hour-guide-to-election-night/
Key constituencies by declaration time to help you understand what might be going on

yougov.co.uk/uk-general-election-2019/
YouGov MRP

www.electionpolling.co.uk/battleground
List of seats by marginality and party targeting them

It's been going on for fifty years since the Age of Majority was lowered in 1969.

I suppose I really meant 'why has that never occurred to me at all'. The first election I was eligible to vote in was 1987, I was already 21. In 1983 I was 17 and mostly interested in sex and alcohol.

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We voted late morning. The polling station seemed extremely quiet. Had a chat with the Labour teller. No one from the Conservatives had bothered to turn up. Our MP was Charlie Elphicke, who lost the whip and stood down here in favour of his wife . We have an excellent Labour candidate. She has been tireless during the campaign, replies personally to all emails and seems to be a person of integrity and compassion, exactly the sort of person we need in Parliament. Everyone I know here is voting Labour but the town I live in has quite a different feel to Dover and I suppose I’m in a bit of a bubble where everyone I know falls into arty/creative/small business owner type categories and many are incomers from London. The latest polls have the constituency as likely Conservative. It will be a travesty if that happens. When we moved here I assumed it was a true blue area but apparently it’s a Bellwether. I’m trying to make myself come to terms with a Tory win here as well as overall but there’s a little spark of hope that refuses to be extinguished.

We’ve just had sausage rolls and crisps for lunch
I predict many hours of comfort eating ahead...

Voted slightly later as had to get DD to docs first thing as she has nasty water infection. Picked up antibiotics and said I'd get her straight home and warm, but she insisted that we vote before returning home. "It know how important it is, Mama" (she's just turned 8, and has come along with me since she was a babe in arms)

We go into the booth and she says loudly "why are there pencils Mama? that doesn't seem right" The clerk pipes up that we may have a pen (biro) if we prefer, so DD marches over and claims the pen. I put my X in the box, confirming to DD why I'm voting for him - she already know why. We have signs all over our house and garden! I fold the paper and she pops it in the ballot box for me as she always has.

Clerks confirm a busy turnout here. And there was one elderly lady absolutely raging about a woman who had admitted to voting for the first time in her life. I did wonder what made said lady vote for the first time.

Hoping for some upsets / surprises. Either way, the tide has to turn eventually. Good luck all.

I'll be going out to vote very soon, as I have just finished work.

I'm just about decided now that I will vote Labour although I am not really a Corbyn fan. They are a better bet for a tactical/protest vote in this pretty safe Tory seat. They came a reasonably good second in 2017, as the LibDem and UKIP votes collapsed.

I'm nervous about the next 24 hours. I don't want a Boris led Conservative majority. I'd prefer a slightly left leaning hung parliament.

I've tossed up on voting Green because I like the fact that we have a candidate this time, whereas we didn't in 2017, but I think voting Labour will make more of an impression here somehow.

I do hope that I see lots of young people turning up to vote for the first time. I think that can make a really big difference.

I predict many hours of comfort eating ahead

I made a big pot of roast veg soup and promptly ate half of it.

I'm a bit uneasy about the high turnout - at the referendum it favoured Brexit.

Just been to drop our postal votes in at the local polling station. About half a dozen people were coming out as I went in and a few others came in while I was still there. The teller said it had been "very steady" - more so than usual and that there was a contingency plan in place if it got really busy later.

We shall see. Que sera sera.

I don't know if there is a high turnout nationally. It will depend on what's going on in certain seats.

Also I suspect few people will want to go out in the cold and dark to vote, so maybe more going early doors in the cold and light

Well, #YouthQuake is trending on Twitter. Might be hot air though

DS told me all his mates had voted. Not a single one missed their chance.

PMK

PMK

Even the most fervently patriotic Scots wouldn't claim their kids are cleverer and more mature than English kids

BCF, you need to meet more Scots 😂.

To be fair I have also heard this from a university lecturer in England who said the education system in Scotland favored self learning and promoted maturity.

Meanwhile ...

Definitely more people voting than 7sual in my very sage Tory seat....

PMK. I don't want to get hopeful and end up even more upset later on, but it's so hard not to hope. I really do have great faith in the ordinary people of the UK.

DH also said that people might be turning out now, instead of braving the dark later.

Well, #YouthQuake is trending on Twitter. Might be hot air though

I thought I'd just invented that term in my head! Has it been used before?

I'm getting that feeling myself. And they won't be voting blue.

PMK

I've crossed my fingers and toes and may take out the rosary beads MIL brought me back from Madjugorie later!

In good news - my only friend who voted leave says she'll vote lib dem (safe tory seat, lib dems second). Luckily it seems like not letting the Tories/Boris Johnson in again is a higher priority than Brexit for some people at least.

Three Labour votes from this household put safely into the ballot box. A bit of rain never hurt anyone and it wasn't going to stop us. I asked if it was busy and was told emphatically YES!

Pmk

Lol Camomila apparently the seers of Medugorje have said events happening across the globe are setting in motion the beginning of the end times. If Johnson wins then I might just believe it.

Not sure what way my DH will jump. I think he is more concerned about Corbyn than Johnson.

He's also in the "voted remain but we need to honour the referendum result" camp.

We've had a couple of arguments. Maybe he'll vote Monster Raving Loony.

apparently the seers of Medugorje have said events happening across the globe are setting in motion the beginning of the end times

Well, Alan Moore voted for the first time - which was taken as a similar portent

paleofuture.gizmodo.com/watchmen-creator-alan-moore-explains-why-hes-voting-tod-1840383240

Well, the seers of medjugorie can kiss my arse