Tuesday 2 May 2006

Weekend Voting - what do you think?

I would really be interested in feed back from you about the weekend voting in the town centre. I have to admit I was a little surprised that the number of people taking the opportunity was so low, we estimate about 1200.
We have about 60,000 people on the electoral role, 7,000 are registered postal voters. Which leaves about 53,000 voters casting their votes at the ballot boxes. So just over 2% of those eligible. It has to be appreciated that new idea's often need time for people to adjust to them, so I hope this pilot continues for at least 2 more years.
It is also worth noting that a number of young people registered for the first time. Because of the town centre presence and if nothing else, it raised the profile of the election in a very direct way. I know a few people voted that otherwise would not have. Being over a Bank Holiday weekend did not help either. Although I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised at the number of people shopping in our town that were not Farnborough residents. I talked to many people from Camberley, Aldershot, Basingstoke and Guildford, and no, they were not lost.
What do you think of weekend voting?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

eligible...sorry couldn't help it

David Clifford said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
David Clifford said...

Please don't apologise, I am grateful! My spelling is not what it should be - but I have corrected my mistake quickly.
(My first reply had a spelling mistake that I had to delete. I spotted it this time!!!)But you did not tell me. What do you think of weekend voting?