I Think most people go to bed and catch up with the results on breakfast television in the morning. I stayed up till midnight when 3 or 4 results had been declared and the trend then was obvious and was matching the exit poll. Previously , especially during the 1997 Labour landslide I did stop up till about 2am .
Regarding parties , I imagine there were ones held at the local and national headquarters of the main political parties. Most candidates though , including Blair, Howard and Kennedy, will not have been at these parties. Instead they would have been at the local hall where the votes were being counted and the results declared for their constituency.
I voted first thing in the morning. I like to do it then because so few people do it so I don’t have to queue. Plus, if there were to be a cock-up, not that there has ever been for me - having a unique name must help - it would give me the rest of the day to sort it out.
I stayed up until five or so, so saw most of the results.
Quite a lot of people will stay up until 12 or 1am, long enough to see a few results from constituencies regarded as good barometers of general trends - we certainly haven’t forgotten the very wrong exit polls from 1992.
I voted at the local community centre - dingy Victorian building on Canal Street. No posters, whether of Her Majesty the Queen (Gawd Bless 'Er) or anyone else.
There was a small queue, including one woman with a hyperactive long-haired dachshund. I don’t believe the dog got to vote, though.
Straightforward procedure; one ballot paper for the general election, another for the local council one, fold each paper in half and slip it into the appropriate box. The observers for the various parties (why do the Greens always have bad moustaches?) asked me for my electoral role number, as, I believe, they are entitled to.
Poor crop of candidates in Oxford West this year - no loonies at all, unless you count UKIP.
For reference, I was once a polling officer myself - I was working for a district council at the time, and a call for volunteers was circulated. Since it involved a small bonus payment, for a very simple job, I was happy to sign up and sit on my backside all day reading science fiction novels and dealing with the four people who showed up to vote that day. Duties included handing out the papers, marking them with the official stampy-thing, sealing the ballot box at the end of the day (with the official sealing wax provided - I don’t know if they still do this, it was a while ago now) and returning it for counting. All perfectly straightforward really.
Thanks. Yeah, in the suspense-less 2004 “Super Tuesday” primary, with Kerry already a dead cert and no Repubs to speak of running, we had about 47 people at our booth during our 15-hour workday. Three people came in a row after 9:00 Mass and the excitement was–nope, still not there. I read some New Yorkers I’d been saving up.
Is there one box for everybody who comes in, or do you go to a different box depending on your precinct? Who gets to open and count the boxes later?
There is usually just one box to put your voting slips. This is because the polling station just covers one voting district. Even when you are voting for both local and national elections, both slips go in the same box and are separated out at the count.
The boxes are then transported to the town hall or similar place for the count. I imagine they are opened in front of the officials responsible for the count , usually the returning officer or deputies. Representatives of the various political parties can also witness the opening of the boxes.
As for the actual counting , this is done by such people as bank and local government clerks who get paid for this. I don’t know how much , but I imagine it is not a large fee , even though is takes place in “unsocial hours” and there is pressure to get the count out quickly but also to be accurate.