Well it’s election day. We won’t know the results of the European parliament elections until Sunday and there weren’t any local elections happening here, so there is a gap before we know what happened. The exit polls can now be published though which may make interesting reading. I took part in a yougov poll early this morning and that’s one I’m interested in reading. As I write this there are about 2 or 3 hours until tomorrows newspapers become available which will probably print the exit polls.
I think the European parliament elections tend to have an odd feel to them because the parliament is so far away politically and geographically. I think the turnout is estimated to be between about 25% and 30% which seems ok. More needs to be done to get people to vote though. And not, as I said before, by changing the system. People should want to vote, not vote because it’s suddenly easier.
On a side note I managed to loose my polling card, but the nice people at the polling place were able to look up the correct details so everything worked well. Not many people there when I went, which was about 5.30pm, but I heard that some polling places experienced late rushes after people got back from work. At 5.30pm there were still four and half hours remaining until close, so plenty of time at that point.