The polls closed last night at… 10? 11? And what results do we have?  None! *sigh* But then, I found out they didn’t start counting until this morning; I guess all-nighters are reserved for years where the Members of Parliament are being selected. So I sit here, whapping refresh, wondering what the fate of the local council and its Mayor shall be.

As it were, the bigger tease is that they won’t even start counting the AV votes until 4pm! FOUR! PM! That’s like… forever away. *flails* Right right, less than two hours, and they expect the results in by 8pm, but still… still!

I will say one of the big things I’m curious about is turnout. I was arguing with my in-laws yesterday that turnout would be much higher if people were permitted to pick none of the above. It used to be a legit option here in the UK (marking everything was apparently a registered ‘none of the above’ vote) I’ve been told, but was removed/phased out by the last government. Now marking everything just invalidates your paper, and you count for nothing… kind of demoralizing.

Anyways, the crux of the argument, to me, is that none of the above is awesome and nice. My father-in-law thinks that if voting were made mandatory, then people would be happier choosing between A, B or C since they’re already there. I disagree, and think that’s cutely naive. There are times I would’ve been much happier not voting because I disliked all of the candidates, but because I’m determined to exercise my civic duty… it’s kind of not a tasty choice.

Having said that, I sincerely doubt they’d ever make voting mandatory here, or restore a ‘none of the above’ option. The first would probably make their precious elections less easy to predict and force them to be accountable/courting a lot more people. The second would force them to realize just how few people support them, and that’s not a comfortable thing to face up with. After all, politics here in the UK seem to insist that if people ain’t voting, they ain’t bothered//don’t want a change, so… *shakes head*

Anyways, back to whapping refresh, and seeing if we’re free of the Night Mayor. Also – say ‘Night Mayor’ out loud. Just do it – you’ll thank me for the lulz.

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