Reasonable results last night:
Maidstone Central: Green 393; Lab 943; Con 1301; LD 2169; UKIP 510; ED 89 Turnout 19%
Allington: Green 30; Lab 179; Con 434; LD 885; UKIP 162 Turnout 30%
Allington has always been the ward with the lowest Green vote in Maidstone and excluding those numbers from the Maidstone Central result gives a much clearer picture of how well we have done - an estimated 10% in the non-Allington wards.
Thanks to all the team!
The big loser last night was democracy. A turnout of just 19% is very poor (and was just 16% across the non-Allington wards in Maidstone Central). There will have been four elections in Allington this year: two borough elections, the county council by election and the police commissioner election. People must be getting a bit hacked off with repeated trips to the polling station.
I am also concerned that people had received police commissioner polling cards before the by-election yesterday. I wonder how many got confused between the elections and that they didn't need to vote until 15th Nov?
Green Party campaigner in Kent. Also a nurse, academic, former manager, writer, Druid, husband and father...
2 comments:
Hi Stuart,
I hoped the elections would be combined with the PCC elections, to try and tackle apathy and deal with some of the voter fatigue. This was possible in the constitution, but it required the Lib Dems to hold off the paperwork for a few more days (the by-election has to be called within 30 days of two requests being lodged, which is traditionally done by the party of the deceased councillor).
Of course, I'm sure this decision had nothing to do with the fact that Lib Dems generally do well in low-turnout elections! ...
Hi Steve, I'm just glad we're not standing next month as well - I doubt I could cope with three elections in one year. I don't really understand why they couldn't have waited until May next year - it is not as though the division and ward would have been without councillors.
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