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European Parliament Elections 2014 |OT| The Undemocratic EU is Actually Elected

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K

Kabouter

Member
Just voted here in NL. Was very quiet at the polling station, significantly more so than during the municipal elections earlier this year. Obviously just anecdotal though.
 
D

Daeda

Member
Kabouter said:
Just voted here in NL. Was very quiet at the polling station, significantly more so than during the municipal elections earlier this year. Obviously just anecdotal though.
Click to expand...

I had the same experience. Though I voted around 9:00 as opposed to around 19:00 (and at a different voting booth) than last time. But I doubt the voter turnout will be much higher than 40% anyway.
 
A

anonymous_abc

Member
Do you always vote on Thursdays?
It's always Sunday in Germany, and that seems more sensible to me as most people will be off work and have time.



Voting Dates
5zq6s71.png

zJiCYc8.png
 
D

Dougald

Member
Thursday is just tradition. Though I believe when the coalition government came in, they set up fixed terms for general elections that states a specific Thursday every 5 years

Making it happen on a weekend would be too sensible
 
S

Starwolf_UK

Member
I tried the votematch website. It found I agreed the most with Lib Dem and slightly less with Labour and Green. Even then this was not a huge number of points (I did fence sit and skip some questions).

FliXFantatier said:
Do you always vote on Thursdays?
Click to expand...
Yes. The polling stations are open from 07:00-22:00 though and are within walking distance of where you live (generally churches) but there have been occasions where people have turned up at the last minute (Sheffield last general election) and not been able to vote. There are also postal votes if you are absent on that day or otherwise find getting to the station a hassle.
 
H

hat_hair

Member
FliXFantatier said:
Where?
I've done it in the past, but once will suffice. ;)

Oh and another question, so the results for the EP will be announced on Sunday, do you count tonight though?
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Leeds. There's counting for local elections tonight, but we're not allowed to open the ballot boxes for the European elections until all polls are closed on Sunday night.
 
T

TeddyBoy

Member
Annoyingly the election came a few days to early for me, only going home sunday so won't be able to vote today. I hope Green Party does well and UKIP does terribly (it's certain to be the other way around).
 
D

Daeda

Member
FliXFantatier said:
Do you always vote on Thursdays?
It's always Sunday in Germany, and that seems more sensible to me as most people will be off work and have time.
Click to expand...

AFAIK, in The Netherlands the law only explicitly forbids an election on a Sunday (because it would piss of the conservative Christians). All other days are fine, but nowadays elections are usually held on a Wednesday, because primary schools close down early that day and a lot of the polling booths are set up in schools. The fact that it's a Thursday now probably has to do with the time window in which the EU elections are held.
 
B

BrassDragon

Member
There's a bit of controversy in the Netherlands because the government has assented to the European Union's demand that the results won't be published until the last country has voted.

This goes against the spirit of our national voting laws and is seen by Euro-sceptics as a measure to keep negative sentiment from influencing elections in other member states.

There's a grassroots movement to collect results from hundreds of individual voting stations (which are required by law to announce them to those present at the end of the manual count) so we can have a semi-reliable prognosis by midnight instead of three days from now.
 
C

CyclopsRock

Member
Tugatrix said:
Does this tradition of a week day voting work in terms of turnout?
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It's been so long since we had a non-weekday vote in the UK that I think comparisons are hard to make. Turnout for the European elections are so low in the UK (and, in fact, they're made to look more favourable by the local elections - in the one instance where the local elections and EU Parliament elections did not occur at the same time, the voter turnout plummeted by about 30%) but it's hard to know if they wouldn't be if it were a weekend.

I'm gonna try and sneak into my local polling station on my way home from work. I work at the top of the road I used to live on, and I'm still listed there in the electoral register. Sneaky sneaky electoral fraudy.
 
A

anonymous_abc

Member
Tugatrix said:
That's a sucess in my eyes, here the last local election had a 40% turnout
Click to expand...
o_O?

BrassDragon said:
There's a bit of controversy in the Netherlands because the government has assented to the European Union's demand that the results won't be published until the last country has voted.

This goes against the spirit of our national voting laws and is seen by Euro-sceptics as a measure to keep negative sentiment from influencing elections in other member states.

There's a grassroots movement to collect results from hundreds of individual voting stations (which are required by law to announce them to those present at the end of the manual count) so we can have a semi-reliable prognosis by midnight instead of three days from now.
Click to expand...
So in the Netherlands the ballots are counted tonight, not on Sunday?
That seems weird...
 
B

BrassDragon

Member
FliXFantatier said:
o_O?


So in the Netherlands the ballots are counted tonight, not on Sunday?
That seems weird...
Click to expand...

Legally, the ballot count needs to happen immediately when voting ends at the voting station (and also verbally announced when it's done.) It's to ensure maximum transparancy, which is why the EU embargo seems at odds with the spirit of the law.

The chairman of the voting station then writes an official statement of the results and any irregularities which is sent to the central voting office (where they will total the results and sit on it until Sunday.) By collecting the individual voting station announcements, the protesters aim to have a result tonight
 
S

StayDead

Member
Jimmyfenix said:
In glasgow just voted no UKIP presence thank goodness.
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I'm in Essex and it seems there's going to be UKIP presence here which is something I'm worried about, but I just hope the large majority of people are not stupid enough to actually vote for them.

I'm about to go vote now. I wasn't going to vote at all but changed my mind last minute.
 
C

CyclopsRock

Member
Tugatrix said:
Yeah that's truth

Capturar.png


A combo of disbelieve in politics, with an almost entirely age old illiterate population (thanks to our dictator Salazar) and immigration
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I think there's a mix up here, linguistically - that looks like a 60% voter turnout? Or 59%. "Voter Turnout" is typically the number of people that do vote, not the number that don't. So a voter turnout of 40% means that 60% didn't vote, etc. So a voter turnout of 60% is far better than a turnout of 24%!
 
T

Tregard

Soothsayer
Voting in NI, our UKIP representative was there as well as both DUP candidates, I luckily avoided all of them and got straight to the voting.
 
G

Ghost

Chili Con Carnage!
Voting Green because they are the only party with an actual policy statement about net neutrality.

Labour are actually against an agreement on it (as are the tories as you expected).
 
A

anonymous_abc

Member
Tregard said:
Voting in NI, our UKIP representative was there as well as both DUP candidates, I luckily avoided all of them and got straight to the voting.
Click to expand...

In Germany any campaigning in or around the polling station is strictly forbidden. There usually is no or hardly any campaigning on the day.
 
T

Tugatrix

Member
CyclopsRock said:
I think there's a mix up here, linguistically - that looks like a 60% voter turnout? Or 59%. "Voter Turnout" is typically the number of people that do vote, not the number that don't. So a voter turnout of 40% means that 60% didn't vote, etc. So a voter turnout of 60% is far better than a turnout of 24%!
Click to expand...

Oh I see my confusion, then 24% is abysmally bad worst than here
 
S

StayDead

Member
Just got back. There was one candidate stood around outside the station, the UKIP representantive and people were happily chatting away with him. x_x

I had to take a long walk around him going both in and out, because I didn't want to end up saying something I regretted about what I think of his party there and then. Either way got in and got straight to voting.
 
C

Cybran

Neo Member
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/22/uk-france-sarkozy-idUKKBN0E20HY20140522

"There is not one Europe but two ... In the euro zone, we must stop believing in the myth of equal rights between all members."

"I am arguing for the creation of a large Franco-German economic zone at the heart of the euro zone that will allow us to better defend our interests while eradicating our fiscal and social handicaps," he wrote.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...r-end-of-Europes-visa-free-Schengen-area.html

A "large, coherent and stable" Franco-German economic bloc at the heart of the eurozone would allow France "to better defend (its) interests in the face of German competition by doing away with fiscal and social disadvantages", he added.
Click to expand...

Nice to hear what us in Eastern and Southern Europe have know all along. There is no point in voting.
 
A

anonymous_abc

Member
Cybran said:
Nice to hear what us in Eastern and Southern Europe have know all along. There is no point in voting.
Click to expand...

Because a now irrelevant (and obviously aged looking) right wing politician in France says something silly, you think using your democratic privilege of voting is no longer necessary?
 
B

BrassDragon

Member
D

Dougald

Member
FliXFantatier said:
In Germany any campaigning in or around the polling station is strictly forbidden. There usually is no or hardly any campaigning on the day.
Click to expand...

Campaigning is also illegal in the UK. All these representatives are allowed to do is ask for your voter number (so they can canvass people who said they'd vote for them but haven't voted). They are not allowed to engage voters in conversation, enter the polling station except to vote themselves, or in any way impede voters from entering/exiting the station
 
A

anonymous_abc

Member
Dougald said:
Campaigning is also illegal in the UK. All these representatives are allowed to do is ask for your voter number (so they can canvass people who said they'd vote for them but haven't voted). They are not allowed to engage voters in conversation, enter the polling station except to vote themselves, or in any way impede voters from entering/exiting the station
Click to expand...

What? They ask whether you voted for them and if not their goons come round and ...? o_O?
 
D

Dougald

Member
FliXFantatier said:
What? They ask whether you voted for them and if not their goons come round and ...? o_O?
Click to expand...

No, they are not allowed to ask who you voted for either, only your number. Anything else is illegal and should be reported to the polling station staff / the police. I always blank them, the only reason to comply is out of a misplaced sense of politeness

They generally will have a list of voter numbers and names. So if they have talked to you during the campaign, and you promised them your vote, they can see if you voted.

Generally a tactic used during elections where the result is likely to be close, they go around in the evening "generously" offering lifts to all the little old ladies who said they'd vote for them but didn't get to the station
 
A

anonymous_abc

Member
Dougald said:
No, they are not allowed to ask who you voted for either, only your number. Anything else is illegal and should be reported to the polling station staff / the police

They generally will have a list of voter numbers and names. So if they have talked to you during the campaign, and you promised them your vote, they can see if you voted.

Generally a tactic used during elections where the result is likely to be close, they go around in the evening "generously" offering lifts to all the little old ladies who said they'd vote for them but didn't get to the station
Click to expand...
That still doesn't sound right to me...
'Yea yea, sure I'll vote for you just let me past...'
'I see sir, you haven't actually voted yet, would you mind hopping into the boot of this car driven by these two friendly gentlemen and they will drop you off at the polling station and make sure you do the right thing.'

What possible justification is there for this kind of invasion of voter privacy?
 
F

Frankfurter

Member
Dougald said:
No, they are not allowed to ask who you voted for either, only your number. Anything else is illegal and should be reported to the polling station staff / the police. I always blank them, the only reason to comply is out of a misplaced sense of politeness

They generally will have a list of voter numbers and names. So if they have talked to you during the campaign, and you promised them your vote, they can see if you voted.

Generally a tactic used during elections where the result is likely to be close, they go around in the evening "generously" offering lifts to all the little old ladies who said they'd vote for them but didn't get to the station
Click to expand...


Wait what... these guys are allowed to know who voted and who didn't!?

And why would I give any of these clowns my voter number?
 
D

Dougald

Member
They're allowed to ask, but you're under no obligation to tell

I don't agree with it though and normally tell them to sod off
 
T

Tugatrix

Member
Dougald said:
No, they are not allowed to ask who you voted for either, only your number. Anything else is illegal and should be reported to the polling station staff / the police. I always blank them, the only reason to comply is out of a misplaced sense of politeness

They generally will have a list of voter numbers and names. So if they have talked to you during the campaign, and you promised them your vote, they can see if you voted.

Generally a tactic used during elections where the result is likely to be close, they go around in the evening "generously" offering lifts to all the little old ladies who said they'd vote for them but didn't get to the station
Click to expand...


Is that legal ?
 
H

Hasney

Member
Did it this morning. Was dead, but I didn't expect much on a cold, rainy morning at 7am. Noticed several EU election parties all running on the same platform of out of the EU without anything else going for them, so I hope they split the vote.
 
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