Euro Elections!

[HMS Sophia]

Britain has 4211 seats?

This is local council elections. Each council has somewhere between 20 and 50 seats available. The election was for counsellors for 161 local councils.

In general elections, we're only voting for the 650 commons seats.

[madd0ct0r]

I think this should go here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 27571.html

The Independent has seen evidence of more than 60 EU nationals on the electoral roll being denied the chance to vote in the European elections. The overall number affected is likely to be significantly higher.

The lost votes could be particularly significant in a year when Ukip is expected to make significant gains as non-British voters are less likely to support immigration-sceptical candidates.

Many EU nationals had made sure they were on the electoral roll but were unaware of an extra piece of paperwork needed in order to cast their votes in Britain. The form, known as a UC1 appears not to have been advertised or sent out in many cases.

Others had all the relevant registration documents but were still told by election officials to “go and vote in their own country”.

[Zaune]

Oh, bugger.

[HMS Sophia]

*Sigh* And I was just feeling vaguely confident about our ability to show up the Yanks in an election...

[Dartzap]

Probably happens in Spain as well.

[Thanas]

Glad British civil service continues their work with the efficiency they are known for throughout Europe.

Also, Moved.

[Dartzap]

Civil servants? You having a giraffe? The guys on Poll duty are just proles who signed up to do it for the day. Good bit of cash for it, but its not an actual job per se. Mostly of the Captain Mainwaring disposition.

[Zaune]

Huh. Wish I'd known about that; I thought they all worked for the Boundary Commission or the county council the rest of the year.

[Dartzap]

Huh. Wish I'd known about that; I thought they all worked for the Boundary Commission or the county council the rest of the year.

MoneyMagpie

MAKE MONEY FROM ELECTIONS – BE A POLL CLERK

Can you make yourself free for a whole day next time we have an election? You can earn up to £250 for a day’s work in a Polling station. It’s a quick and easy money-making idea and ideal if you are retired or a student.

Anyone is eligible to act as a poll clerk, providing they are over 18, literate and not a member of a political party participating in the election. The only other requirement is that applicants must be on the electoral roll. Incidently, not being registered on the electoral roll can damage your credit rating. Visit Credit Expert for more details and a free credit rating. In order to be put on the electoral roll you just need to contact your local Council and ask them to do it.
Usually, poll clerks have worked for their local council, but this experience is not a prerequisite. Call your local authority and ask for the Elections and Registration Office, or send them an email telling them that you’re interested. They’ll send you a form if they need clerks. Also, many local authorities have online application forms, so have a look at their websites.

It’s better to apply sooner rather than later, so don’t leave it until a week before an election because the positions will probably already be filled. However, some local authorities recruit all year round so you can try applying in advance and be put on a waiting list for the next election.

If successful, you will attend a training/briefing session and then be sworn in the day before the election. On Election Day, a Presiding Officer oversees the whole station and will supervise and instruct you.

Your duties are to help the Presiding Officer set up polling booths: check and mark each person as they vote; stamp and issue ballot papers to voters, making sure they bear the official mark; ensure that voters cast their votes in secret; answer any questions in a friendly and professional way; show people how to vote; and maintain the secrecy and security of the ballot.

It’s a long day, usually from early morning (before 7am) till at least 10pm when the voting finishes.

You can also apply to help count the ballot papers in the evening, but be aware that this is pretty frantic work.

[Spoonist]

Here you go the results are starting to come in:
http://www.results-elections2014.eu/en/ ... -2014.html
The anti-voting is strong this time around.

[Tony Stark]

UKIP set to top UK's votes.

[Tony Stark]

Wales' 4 MEP's represent Labour, UKIP, Conservative and Plaid Cymru so a 50:50 split on the Euro question showing there.

[Irbis]

Quick, take a guess which country possibly elected a neonazi to Europarliament

...

Poland was one of the best in that regard - only 4 seats lost to Eurosceptics, namely on idiot* Libertarian protest party, and this is the only election in history they won any seats.

*idiot as they are extremely conservative socially, to the point their leader is asshole who would introduce 18th century moral laws and lamented Obama election on skin color

Two nice things so far - one, right wing religious populists lost eight election in a row, and it seriously looked like they might grab this one on protest ticket This also means EPP delegation will be very strong, looks like 12% of MEPs in biggest EU party will be Poles. Though this might have ruined Schulz chances, so might be bad after all.

Second, another idiotic project "let's divide and sabotage left wing electorate vote on personal prejudices" crashed and burned. The only true left wing party in Poland was marginalized in last decade due to butthurt drop-outs killing their chances for personal reasons. Now that their third in a row "let's kick left wing out of parliament" attempt died, maybe finally leftists can be a major party again. Sadly, this means another 5 years with weak Polish presence in S&D, but oh well.

[Tony Stark]

Germany and France have voted in a couple Ultra Right MEP's

Also BNP has lost it's MEP's.

[Darth Nostril]

Also BNP has lost it's MEP's.

And Nick Griffins Twitter account got hacked.
Farrage's hasn't yet because what he says normally is so batshit insane that no one else can top it.

[Dartzap]

The South West got its first Green MEP, so we now have two Tories, two UKIP, one Labour and one Green.

Could be worse, I suppose.

[Hillary]

The biggest consolation to me is that only 9.4% of those eligible to vote in the UK actually voted for UKIP. Given that UKIP supporters would be highly motivated to vote in the Euro elections, that's not massively high.

They will not be a force in next year's general election. They will not win a seat.

[madd0ct0r]

sigh. the greens should have done much much better. if they couldn't surge then, with the lib dems votes up for grabs and the tories/ukip split, there's not going to be a better opportunity. tcha

[salm]

It´s nice and all that the FDP is gone but did we really have ot replace them with the fucknuts from AFD?

Really, a significant portion of the German electorate needs to be drag... mumblegrmblgrrr!!!

[Starglider]

This alone was sufficient reason to vote UKIP, although it is of course only a tiny pebble on the vast beach of autocratic eurocratic insanity.

[Irbis]

Germany and France have voted in a couple Ultra Right MEP's

Ultra-right?

They voted in Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands. Similarity to Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei isn't a coincidence, it was intended. You know, the guys who booed the moment of silence at 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi Auschwitz extermination camp.

Eh, let's hope all the bottom feeding scum can't form fractions in parliament and they become loud, obnoxious background.

This alone was sufficient reason to vote UKIP, although it is of course only a tiny pebble on the vast beach of autocratic eurocratic insanity.

And you really believed Torygraph? Especially in EU matters?

By the way, you own article says: "At the same time, the EU appears to believe that member states should be given the power to set their own standards for “specialised” vehicles, which is understood to include classic cars."

Yeah, eeevil EU and forcing member states to set their own standards

[Zixinus]

Welp, my over half of my country's representatives (57% of the vote) are the government party's (FIDESZ). The same party that is acted as if the IMF was some sort of oppressing force (and general their rhetoric is reminiscent of soviet-era "the west is conspiring against us!" with a nationalistic twist) and elected to make a deal with the Russians instead.

The party I voted for got one seat. Yay?

[Zaune]

There are undoubtedly a number of valid criticisms of European Union policy, but none of them are serious enough to justify voting for UKIP. I'd think higher of you if you put your cross next to the BNP; at least they've got the balls to be overt Fascists.

[Crazedwraith]

The biggest consolation to me is that only 9.4% of those eligible to vote in the UK actually voted for UKIP. Given that UKIP supporters would be highly motivated to vote in the Euro elections, that's not massively high.

They will not be a force in next year's general election. They will not win a seat.

Doesn't seem to stop the media going crazy about their gains.

And are you assuming a 100% turn out for the general election there?

[DaveJB]

The media frenzy's mostly because this is the first time in something like 150 years that a national-level election has been won by a party other than the Tories, Labour or the Liberal(-Democrat)s.

That said, based on historical president such as the SDP in 1983 and the Liberal Democrats in 2010, UKIP could well gain a decent-sized share of the vote in next year's general election, but will likely end up with few if any seats due to their vote being spread out too much to count for anything. I suppose you could also compare them to the Referendum Party, who got a lot of buzz prior to the 1997 election, but ultimately made little impact beyond helping unseat a few more Tories.