There was an election

As a resident I got to vote in the municipal election yesterday. Since I always vote, and I always make informed votes, I had a lot of catching up to do to get ready for the ballot. Thankfully this little brochure arrives with our registration cards so that I could scope the candidates out and spell their names correctly when I went to the Internet for further details.

Since I'd rather not discuss the people I voted for, and the process is so different from what I'm used to in Canada, let's talk about that.

First of all, candidates have party affiliations here, even at the municipal level. While I'm sure we can all guess most of the affiliations in Canadian municipal elections, they're not declared. That was new and meant I got a crash course in all the major (and a number of lesser known) parties. There were seven candidates for mayor, with seven different parties represented. 

The voting for mayor was probably the most interesting component of this process. You make a first choice and then you get to make a second choice! I know, this blew my mind too - what are they on about with a second choice?! Well, the idea is that if no one wins the first column votes by receiving more than fifty percent of the votes, the top two candidates move the round two and the second column votes for them are allocated. The winner is the person with the highest combined score. It made my head spin to think of the strategic possibilities, but I must admit, I didn't investigate the prevalence of strategic voting.

If you want to know more about the process, London Elects has details.

Anyway, after you vote for mayor, you get to vote for the assembly member for your borough. We're in Westminster so we had five options and, again, party affiliations abound. The assembly is made up of additional London-wide members, so once you've chosen your borough member you get your third ballot out and you vote for the party that you would like to give your vote to. Seats are then divided up based on votes.

See? I told you this party affiliation phenomenon was serious stuff!

Aside from the above differences, you know what else I noticed about the election? There were no election signs to be seen in our area. It was so refreshing not to walk by sign after sign or to see them blowing down the street or filling ditches.

The cutest part of voting was the actual building where we voted: we walked in through the kitchen and were met by two women with scratch pads in a sort of closet-type room. They asked our numbers and then sent us into a bigger room (with a really strange assortment of items piled into the one end...I noticed a faux military helmet on top of one box). In the bigger room we stated our names, then took our ballots to tables with little wooden make-shift dividers that were probably older than I am. Much like in Canada it was all over before we knew it, but unlike in Canada, we couldn't go home to watch the counts roll in or get the results. Polls didn't close until 10pm, so the winner is announced tonight. I suspect the second column has a lot to do with the delay too. 

There you go. We've voted in a new mayor....can't wait to find out who it is!!