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

[Tender Branson]

Election Day has arrived !

Please post election day news and later the results here.

I've asked Hashemite to lock the other thread.

[Tender Branson]

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.

[Tender Branson]

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.

[Tender Branson]

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.

Things tend to be a bit easier when your country has the population of New Jersey

Size doesn't really matter here I guess. The election admin system matters. Germany has 82 Mio. people, uses roughly the same count system and is also more or less done by 10pm, after closing at 6pm.

[Tender Branson]

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

[Tender Branson]

These results are not really unexpected. The voters just waited until election day and the Tories reap the rewards of the strong economy while the LibDems crash like the FDP. Labour gets killed because of the SNP-surge in Scotland. Funny thought that the Tories might even get their own majority (or slightly not, like the CDU in 2013).

Anyway, watching UK election night coverage is really painful: I just stayed up for the exit poll, because even if you wake up at 6am, there was not even 1/2 of the constituencies in. 7-12 hours of crystal ball reading and pundit talk until you have the final results ...

[Tender Branson]

The ÖVP sends their regards:



ÖVP-parliamentary club leader Lopatka.