It’s just two months to go until every seat in Scotland and Wales and the English County Councils are up for election. Also being elected are the metro mayors. Jane Brophy in Manchester, Stephen Williams in West of England, Rod Cantrill in Cambridge, Beverley Nielsen in West Midlands, Chris Foote-Wood in Teeside, Carl Cashman in Liverpool are all flying the Liberal Democrat flag.
Now is a good time to work out what you can do on polling day to help your local campaign team plan their effort. Polling day is incredibly important. Elections can be lost on the day if we can’t get those who have told us they will vote for us to the polls. We always know when election day is because we are interested. It isn’t necessarily every voter’s first priority.
There are all sorts of jobs to be done on the day. From delivering leaflets early on, to visiting our supporters to remind them to vote, to phoning people, to telling at polling stations (that involves greeting people, and taking their polling card number if they are willing to give it so that we know that they have voted and that we don’t need to visit them), it’s a busy and frenetic experience. It’s also great fun.
So, if you can, book the day off work now and let your local team know when you will be around on the day. If you haven’t done a polling day before, you will no doubt find that you never want to miss another.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
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3 Comments
Absolutely right, of course. But don’t forget there are effectively two polling days – with the one when postal votes are delivered being almost as important.
Postal voters are twice as likely to vote in a local election as the rest of the electorate.
I get so criss when enthusiastic people, with good cause, goon about when things should happen – BUT don’t give the dates!!! When is this polling day????
‘When is this polling day????’
In England, Council elections are traditionally held every year on the first Thursday in May. As different councils in England have different constitutions, this doesn’t mean elections everywhere every year (none in Greater London in 2017). Any ‘casual’ elections, such as by-elections, tend to be moved on to the same polling day.
Postal votes tend to land on doormats two to three weeks earlier and local electoral offices are mostly quite open about when this will happen.