Metropol

Coooeee all, so Dimblebot has asked me to provide weekly data for him so I'm going to post a poll each week asking who people intend to vote for. This thread will therefore jump about a bit, so it's not really a great place to have the discussion but I'm sure we'll work it out if people want to post here.

As this is the first attempt I've probably messed up the list and forgotten parties, so do feel free to correct me!

How about an 'undecided' and a 'not voting' option?

Also, it's polite form to list the parties in alphabetical order.

Chie wrote:How about an 'undecided' and a 'not voting' option?

Also, it's polite form to list the parties in alphabetical order.

"Not Voting" does not merit a place in a poll. In fact, it wouldn't make any sense to cast a vote saying you're not voting.

Gavin Scott wrote:"Not Voting" does not merit a place in a poll. In fact, it wouldn't make any sense to cast a vote saying you're not voting.

It helps to know roughly what proportion of people won't be voting. Plus quite a lot of people go to the polling station to deliberately spoil their ballot paper. But it was just a passing suggestion.

Chie wrote:

Gavin Scott wrote:"Not Voting" does not merit a place in a poll. In fact, it wouldn't make any sense to cast a vote saying you're not voting.

It helps to know roughly what proportion of people won't be voting. Plus quite a lot of people go to the polling station to deliberately spoil their ballot paper. But it was just a passing suggestion.

That's true - people do take the trouble to simply spoil voting slips - which is a little baffling.

But as their votes don't count then they're irrelevant for our purposes.

I shall take your comments on board Re: order, but there's no point putting "no vote" or "none" because that wouldn't affect the outcome in the real thing

Nice makeover.

Gavin Scott wrote:

Chie wrote:

Gavin Scott wrote:"Not Voting" does not merit a place in a poll. In fact, it wouldn't make any sense to cast a vote saying you're not voting.

It helps to know roughly what proportion of people won't be voting. Plus quite a lot of people go to the polling station to deliberately spoil their ballot paper. But it was just a passing suggestion.

That's true - people do take the trouble to simply spoil voting slips - which is a little baffling.

But as their votes don't count then they're irrelevant for our purposes.

I disagree about spoiling voting slips being baffling. Those who do spoil their slips are in my mind demonstrating that they do care and are interested but don't feel anyone represents their views.

I would encourage everyone to vote in one way or another and I accept spoiling your ballot is an acceptable answer. Those who fail to vote are largely in my mind lazy and should receive short shrift if they moan about the state of things.

m-in-m wrote: I disagree about spoiling voting slips being baffling. Those who do spoil their slips are in my mind demonstrating that they do care and are interested but don't feel anyone represents their views.

I would encourage everyone to vote in one way or another and I accept spoiling your ballot is an acceptable answer. Those who fail to vote are largely in my mind lazy and should receive short shrift if they moan about the state of things.

Having had a parent who was a candidate in elections several times, I can tell you that the only people to view spoiled papers are the people doing the count, other officials, and occasionally the agents for the candidates - just to be sure that their man/woman isn't missing out.

The candidates themselves don't get to see that people are both pro-democracy yet apathetic to the candidates - so its rather like performing a dirty protest in your pants and not letting on.

Spoiled papers are therefore, in my view of course, utterly pointless.

But surely it sends a message to all the political people that those voters who have turned out but decided to spoil their paper do actually care about what's going on as opposed to those who just don't bother voting at all?

Gavin Scott wrote:Having had a parent who was a candidate in elections several times, I can tell you that the only people to view spoiled papers are the people doing the count, other officials, and occasionally the agents for the candidates - just to be sure that their man/woman isn't missing out.

The candidates themselves don't get to see that people are both pro-democracy yet apathetic to the candidates - so its rather like performing a dirty protest in your pants and not letting on.

Spoiled papers are therefore, in my view of course, utterly pointless.

Well not quite, as the Returning Officer always mentions how many spoiled ballot papers they've received when they announce the results.