Euro Parliament Elections 2019

[Svartalf]

received the electoral literature today, a lot too late for my taste, 12 leaflets for a total of 34 lists officially vying for my vote, I'm not a happy camper, especially since those I received were all the policies of the major party, none of which has any claim to my vote... since I doubt the voting place will even have ballots for my party of choice, I'm seriously envisioning not going to vote at all, which would be a firsts in a couple decades.

[PsychoSerenity]

Just voted. All candidates with strong environmental platforms and track records backing those policies. In local and EU elections. Not a single neoliberal, denier, or any politician who ever gave the US president even a mild compliment got a vote.

Well done. I hope the rest of Europe will make up for the shit-show that the UK will be putting up.

[rainbow]

received the electoral literature today, a lot too late for my taste, 12 leaflets for a total of 34 lists officially vying for my vote, I'm not a happy camper, especially since those I received were all the policies of the major party, none of which has any claim to my vote... since I doubt the voting place will even have ballots for my party of choice, I'm seriously envisioning not going to vote at all, which would be a firsts in a couple decades.

We in Africa have a system whereby all the candidates are on one ballot.

Have you not thought of that?

[Svartalf]

well, givern that each ballot bears the 79 names of the list for which it stands, your solution is not feasible under our current system.

[pErvinalia]

received the electoral literature today, a lot too late for my taste, 12 leaflets for a total of 34 lists officially vying for my vote, I'm not a happy camper, especially since those I received were all the policies of the major party, none of which has any claim to my vote... since I doubt the voting place will even have ballots for my party of choice, I'm seriously envisioning not going to vote at all, which would be a firsts in a couple decades.

We in Africa have a system whereby all the candidates are on one ballot.

Have you not thought of that?

Yeah that's what I'm wondering. What a bizarre situation.

[rainbow]

well, givern that each ballot bears the 79 names of the list for which it stands, your solution is not feasible under our current system.

[Svartalf]

wow, must have been a serious hassle to use

[pErvinalia]

Our senate ballot papers are over metre long.

[NineBerry]

This system was used for municipal elections in Germany in the past. Most municipalities have switched to using different pieces of paper for different parties now. Again, this is very controversial because it allows outside observers to guess what you have voted and it allows you to prove your vote.

[PsychoSerenity]

I'm curious, with these long and complicated ballot papers, how they count the votes?

[NineBerry]

I'm curious, with these long and complicated ballot papers, how they count the votes?

I have been part of that. There are two steps to the counting process. The voters can either mark one party as a whole or split their vote and give votes to candidates of different parties (or to different candidates of the same party).

In the first step at the evening of the election, the electoral commission in the polling station sorts the ballots into groups for parties based on which party has the most votes on each ballot. So, say a voter has 50 votes, a ballot with say 20 votes for conservatives, 18 votes for social democrats and 10 votes for greens and some votes the voter decided not to use is counted as the full 50 votes for conservatives.

The result is used as a rough indicator how the election result looks like so that the parties know which party can have celebration festivities and which party has to go home sulling.

The second step happens in the following days. The electoral commissions meet in building with computer systems. Then they go through each ballot, mark the ballot with a unique number and then enter the detailed content of the ballot into a computer system. The computer does then calculate the actual result: How many seats each party gets and which candidates are elected.

When I was part of the electoral commission in Bruchsal, a town of about 40000 inhabitants, we were busy the two days following election day. My commission was responsible for about 1200 voters, of whom about 800 had voted. So, we had to enter about 800 ballots into the computer.

[Rum]

I have to admit I regret not voting yesterday. Mostly because I have voted in every election I am eligible to pretty much since my 20s. So I feel I’ve not done my ‘duty’. I never vote for anyone who wins anyway so I suppose that is some small consolation.

[Svartalf]

Well, if I go vote, it will be mostly out of a sense of duty, since I'll likely vote blank, unless I'm really lucky and find ballots for my party of choice... but seriously, I'm largely disgusted with how the big parties treated the poll, they put forward strictly national issues and show no vision for europe, they mention stuff in their electoral tracts that the MEPs will never have to deal with, and that having MEPs of their obedience will not help them to deal with tào their satisfaction, helck there's a left wing guy who literally called to vote for him as an anti macron referendum, needless to say, I put his tract and ballot straight into the bin, which is sad as he was one of my possible secondary options.

[NineBerry]

Voting blank has no effect. It is meaningless.

[Svartalf]

I know, but I can't get myself to vote for an undesirable party or bunch of canidates, helck, I voted null in the second round of the last presidential elections, and I can't remember what I did for the second round of the last legislatives...

Closest I did to actually voting when all available options were no desirable was in 2002 when I voted for Le Pen, the father, knowing full well he would never win.