Newport polling station registers 0 votes for police commissioner

[BeyondTheLimitsOfAcceptability]

yes its my one...

In my defence though, I did register for a postal vote that never arrived!

I didn't vote and I always vote, but I had no idea who was standing, so how could I possibly make a decision? What a farce!

There was some mention of a pink leaflet through the door, but we didn't get one.

I'm pretty sure you are capable of using the Internet to do some fairly basic research into the candidates in order to exercise your democratic rights? Leafleting is carried out by party volunteers, so if you didn't get a leaflet it's because some muppet decided that cold, wet, dark November was an excellent time of year to hold an election.

I voted. I would never not vote.

Well yes I could have researched it, but I am also doubtful that I am/ the general public in general are qualified to make this decision.

Not to mention; that although I am more than capable of a bit of internet research in order to help me make a choice, but this is not the case for everyone in the country.

I always vote and I didn't this time. I found out about the candidates and just could not make a decision. I disliked the fact they were party-affiliated and felt under-informed about the actual job; and I am an intelligent person who is probably more interested in politics than average.

Not sure what the public thinks it has achieved tbh with their staying at home and spoilt votes. So now we have a bunch of PCCs that no-one wanted in the first place and in reality didn't get elected properly either because people thought they were making some kind of stand by not voting.

Everyone knew it was a shambles but the ConDems don't give two hoots how many people voted. Even better for them that people who oppose their views & ideas didn't use their vote.

Who's laughing now?

We did a bit of research, we found names but not what their policies were so we didn't go and vote, how could we? We tried but just couldn't find any details

Nullius the link I followed to get to this thread says: 'turnout near you'
so I wasn't really referring to Newport.
The corruption of the police has been over the national media very recently.

I have a discussion of the day!!!!

DH was a presiding officer and clocked 20 people over 13 hours! I voted....

I voted but completely understand why so many didn't.
I only voted because I can't bear to see my right to have a (small) say go to waste-even if it is for one of the most ill thought out, ridiculous, unnecessary, potentially disruptive positions I've ever heard of.
I've not heard a single good reason for these commissioners although their bank managers probably think it's wonderful
I spoke to so many people who didn't even know there was an election or if they were aware had no idea what it was for.
I also spoke to a lot of people who didn't vote because they too thought it was a bad idea to even have a commissioner at all.

Yet again I wonder how high the turnout for all elections would be if we were given a 'none of the above' box to select?

The only way to get proper information about candidates was online.

Lots of people, esp older people, do not have internet access. They really don't.

20% in Northamptonshire - but probably boosted by the Corby by election which had a 44% turnout.

Finding out about our candidates was easy. Simply go to the national PCC website, put in your postcode and the names and short biogs of your county candidates came up - then go to their linked websites where all the manifestos, Qs and As were etc.

Must have been the same for most counties I would think.

I don't have a clue about any of it. I didn't know where to vote, I didn't know anything about the candidates, I don't even know what a commissioner does...

If someone had said 'go here to vote for there to be more police officers' then I probably would have done... but meh. Wtf am I meant to do when I know nothing? :S

grimbletart who won in Northants?

(Finding out about candidates is easy if you are online. I know a lot of people who are not online and as they didn't receive anything about the candidates, they didn't vote.)

katy - when you got your voting card it has the address of your polling station in large writing on the front.

I live in the south west and went and voted.
Our BBC local news spent far more airtime covering the candidates standing for Mayor of Bristol than they did the ones standing for police commissioner for Avon & Somerset.

Btw, does anyone know, if I'd actually recieved my postal vote and sent it off, would that then count as a vote at the polling station, or not?

And yes, the TV news seems to have told people to look at the info online. Shame I dont have TV though...? Nor do I read any newspapers. The extent of news I read tends to be headlines or links on mumsnet!

No - postal votes are counted separately. They were talking about the actual votes cast (or not!) at the polling station.

I didn't vote because I don't agree with PCCs. In the same way that I didn't want an elected mayor, I do not want a political figurehead making decisions about the police. My concern is that elected commissioners will be in the job primarily to raise their own profile or to pursue a political agenda like all MPs. I am obviously not alone in my views given reports that there were 10x the usual amount of spoilt ballot papers.

I am glad that the low turnout is going to trigger an investigation. I found it incredibly patronising that most of the MPs interviewed put the low turnout down to lack of understanding.

Llareggub - maybe that's true of the people on this thread, but what about the people who don't have internet access? What about the people who asked to be sent information through the post and got none?

Mmmnotsure - even some people who are online may not know how to research it. My mum who is a professional, far from old and lives on a laptop will call me to ask me to look something up. If my eldest is with them my dad will ring me to ask how to find a game that she wants to play and which link he has to click to log in.

I've heard from a few people that it's not political (as in connected to parties) but that wasn't the impression on the news today

BeyondTheLimitsOfAcceptability and Olivia this is for you!

I imagine you've seen it already, but so worth repeating IMO :)

I totally forgot, actually parked in the polling station car park, dropping DD at dancing and didn't go in.

I was going to google, but lost the leaflet that came with my polling card.

None of the candidates sent anything so I didn't know who was standing.

Auganie that's naughty

And my spelling is awful too

Apparently the web site holding information about candidates didn't work properly, I confess I didn't try it. I spoilt my ballot because I just didn't know hadn't bothered to find out about the candidates, and morally I think it's wrong to not vote.