UK General Election - May 7th 2015 (The Official Election Day & Results Thread)

[Peeperkorn]

http://news.sky.com/watch-live

[Barnes]

The easiest form of abstention is to simply skip the division, but, yes, voting in both lobbies can also be done.

[Phony Moderate]

Also, the number of registered voters might hit 49-50 million in this election.

In the UK, there's no automatic voter registration and everyone needs to register on their own. For the first time, internet voter registration was also possible and there was a big rush in the last week.

The exact number of eligible voters and turnout will only be known after each constituency has declared their numbers, because voter registration is done by each on their own.

Which means, assuming 49.5 million eligible and 68% turnout, there will be some 33-34 million voting today.

http://www.bbc.com/news/election-2015-32625776

Some are saying that it will have had the opposite effect, though.

Incidentally 34 million would, in terms of raw numbers, be an all-time UK record. If I'm not mistaken, 1992 currently holds it.

[ag]

In 2010 for example, the BBC made a big fanfare of playing Big Ben strike ten as they put out the poll.

Lol.

And when can be official results?

From what I know, every constituency declares their own result at some point after 10pm local time. There are constituencies which take until tomorrow morning or noon to declare, so a UK-wide result should be known tomorrow at some point.

This is correct.  The first results will almost certainly be from the Sunderland constituencies, perhaps an hour or so after the polls close.  Most others will declare some time between about 1am and 6am local time.  A handful will wait until tomorrow to count, and some very close results may also declare very late.  IIRC in 1997 Winchester (where the majority was 2) didn't declare until mid afternoon on the Friday (and of course the result was later declared void and there was a by-election, which, um, wasn't quite as close...).

Ahhh.

That's why I love the Austrian way of elections: Polls are open from 6am to 5pm on Sunday. Vote counting takes 2 hours. Pundits analyse the results until 10pm. Everyone goes to sleep.

You, probably, also prefer to learn the football results from the newscast

[rob in cal]

   Looked at the over under betting odds for the different parties and their seat totals.  Tories are at 285, Labour 271, LD's at 26.5, SNP 50.  Also, Milliband slight favorite to be next PM. 

[Peeperkorn]

Why Bristish elections are always so boring?

[Silent Hunter]

Why Bristish elections are always so boring?

Boring? Boring? Live declarations? Swingometers? Seeing big politicians eat humble pie on national TV? Not boring at all.

[Dancing with Myself]

Which British channels will be streaming their results on their website this time?

In 2010 I remember BBC did.

Preferably I'd watch BBC and Dimblby but I'll find whatever I can.  I don't have C-SPAN anymore sadly.

[Clyde1998]

Which British channels will be streaming their results on their website this time?

In 2010 I remember BBC did.

Preferably I'd watch BBC and Dimblby but I'll find whatever I can.  I don't have C-SPAN anymore sadly.

Sky will be on YouTube.

[King]

Who is the Dick Morris of British politics?

[Torie]

Why Bristish elections are always so boring?

Boring? Boring? Live declarations? Swingometers? Seeing big politicians eat humble pie on national TV? Not boring at all.

Plus for the report of the vote in the constituencies, they have those fringe candidates standing up there in their goofy costumes enjoying the idea that their sartorial presentations are being seen by millions. And when an incumbent goes down unexpectedly, the joy on the face of the surprise winner, and the shock and chagrin on the face of the chap who now needs to find some other way to spend his time, also adds to the drama. Fun stuff!

[Oakvale]

Who is the Dick Morris of British politics?

Katie Hopkins

Why Bristish elections are always so boring?

Boring? Boring? Live declarations? Swingometers? Seeing big politicians eat humble pie on national TV? Not boring at all.

Plus for the report of the vote in the constituencies, they have those fringe candidates standing up there in their goofy costumes enjoying the idea that their sartorial presentations are being seen by millions. And when an incumbent goes down unexpectedly, the joy on the face of the surprise winner, and the shock and chagrin on the face of the chap who now needs to find some other way to spend his time, also adds to the drama. Fun stuff!

Unfortunately this is untrue because they know who's won in advance of the actual declaration although the bad acting is fun to watch.

[Barnes]

The candidates do, of course, but it's fun to watch the crowd's reaction at each declaration.

[Serenity Now]

For those who are interested, here's the approximate declaration times for each constituency:

http://election.pressassociation.com/Declaration_times/general_2015_by_time.php

[Phony Moderate]

Rumours so far indicate a high(er than 2010) turnout in many constituencies.

[ObserverIE]

Bottom-feeding wing of Tory blogosphere getting a little bit paranoid.

The pencil actually points to UKIP

You are not dealing with the reality-based community.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

A trot today told me that I had a smug smile. lol.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

wow my first general election vote. Quite the adrenaline rush!

[Lief 🗽]

Do they still do the big swingometer, with the guy moving the thing back and forth to show the audience? Or does UKIP, SNP, etc. totally screw that up?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

A note about rumours after the polls close: be really really careful about believing these, unless they come from a credible source. And even then don't treat as fact. A lot of false rumours get spread around early on election nights; quite why people bother I have no idea, but they do.

[Clyde1998]

Do they still do the big swingometer, with the guy moving the thing back and forth to show the audience? Or does UKIP, SNP, etc. totally screw that up?

They have four this year - Con-Lab, Lib-Lab, Con-Lib and SNP-Lab.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Though the most genuinely useful one is the Con/Lab one as movement between those parties is so small.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

A note about rumours after the polls close: be really really careful about believing these, unless they come from a credible source. And even then don't treat as fact. A lot of false rumours get spread around early on election nights; quite why people bother I have no idea, but they do.

It's to keep the surprise effect when a rumour actually turns out to be true, for example the rumour about Portillo losing his seat. ^^ 

[Bacon King]

Do they still do the big swingometer, with the guy moving the thing back and forth to show the audience? Or does UKIP, SNP, etc. totally screw that up?

They have four this year - Con-Lab, Lib-Lab, Con-Lib and SNP-Lab.

quadruple swingometers!

truly, we live in exciting times

[Torie]

Who is the Dick Morris of British politics?

Katie Hopkins

Why Bristish elections are always so boring?

Boring? Boring? Live declarations? Swingometers? Seeing big politicians eat humble pie on national TV? Not boring at all.

Plus for the report of the vote in the constituencies, they have those fringe candidates standing up there in their goofy costumes enjoying the idea that their sartorial presentations are being seen by millions. And when an incumbent goes down unexpectedly, the joy on the face of the surprise winner, and the shock and chagrin on the face of the chap who now needs to find some other way to spend his time, also adds to the drama. Fun stuff!

Unfortunately this is untrue because they know who's won in advance of the actual declaration although the bad acting is fun to watch.

Really?  It's not a big secret? Has that always been the case? I believe it was in 2005 when Justine Greening won Putney that it seemed to me there was genuine surprise on both her face and the defeated Labor incumbent. It was a rare bright spot in an otherwise dreary Tory evening. The BBC chap said that if only the swing had been as much across the board as it was in Putney, the Tories would have had a much better evening. But it wasn't. It was an outlier.