Voting for Socialism

Went to vote early. Cast a write-in vote for "WORLD SOCIALISM" for the Mayor and one for "SOCIALISM -- SPGB" for the constituency (no Socialist standing in mine, only the 5 usual suspects). I kept the London-wide one (it was supposed to be orange, but it's definitely pink) for our records, as it's set out much more clearly than the ballot paper for the European Parliament we contested as a list. It only contains the names and emblems of the parties contesting whereas the one for the EP had the registered name, the description, the emblem and the names of all the candidates. This is way we want go as, for us, it's "the case not the face" that counts.

The reason they have done this is that the votes will be counted electronically. This means that each ballot paper is shown on screens which can be seen by all of the few hundred people (the counting agents of the parties) who will be at the count. This includes write-in votes which will be seen by more than, as with hand counting, just the particular counter who counts them and the election agents of the candidates. That's why it's worthwhile going and casting a write-in vote (rather than just abstain). In fact, as I'll be at the count in Earls Court, where the votes of Merton & Wandsworth and other constituencies in South West and West London will be counted, I'll be able to see my vote as well as those of the dozen or so other comrades in these constituencies. But if you live in Lambeth, Merton, Southwark or Wandsworth don't forget to turn auto-pilot off so as not to cast a write-in vote. There are Socialist candidates there on the yellow ballot paper. You can vote for socialism directly by voting for them.

Nomination Day

The nominations paper were handed in at 11 o'clock this morning. We were the first. They were accepted as valid. Also handed in was the £5000 deposit (which we'll get back if we get 2.5% of the votes cast).

One anomaly is that, being a list election, the full registered name of the parties contesting will appear on the ballot paper as well as any variant of their names they may have used on the nomination papers. We used, as in previous elections, "The Socialist Party (GB)", so both our full name and the variant will appear on the ballot paper. But this is how the Electoral Commission and the Returning Officers have decided to interpret the law. If we had chosen to put our full name this would have appeared twice.

Another anomaly -- in fact a stupidity -- is that the full registered name of the parties contesting will determine the order on the ballot paper in which the lists appear. But "The" is to count as the first word where this is included in the registered name, as it will be for most parties. So nearly all the lists will be under T. Another Electoral Commission and Returning Officers decision. Now if we'd called ourselves Aardwark Socialist Party then we'd be first . . .