# UK Police Commissioner Elections? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 30, 2012, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-police-commissioner-elections/639313 "2012-10-30T09:53:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-police-commissioner-elections/639313/21 "2012-11-16T03:08:49Z")
[Surprise. Not that many people really cared.](http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/nov/15/police-crime-commissioners-election-turnout) ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-police-commissioner-elections/639313/22 "2012-11-16T12:19:02Z")
Bump! Well… I didn’t vote but they had a quick bit on the Today program this morning and it seems they might be seeing an unusually high number of spoiled ballots. Damn I wish I’d thought of that. Let’s see what the news is after lunch. ---
**Author:** ![Cumbrian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce7236/32.png) [@Cumbrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumbrian)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-police-commissioner-elections/639313/24 "2012-11-16T13:03:42Z")
There’s only one word for these PCC elections, and happily it’s the word of the year (according to OUP or OED or whomever). Omnishambles. If I am permitted two words: Fucking omnishambles. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-police-commissioner-elections/639313/25 "2012-11-16T13:15:23Z")
These are sinecures for placemen. ---
**Author:** ![MarcusF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@MarcusF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarcusF)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-police-commissioner-elections/639313/26 "2012-11-16T13:27:15Z")
> [@Small\_Clanger](#): > > Bump! > > Well… I didn’t vote but they had a quick bit on the Today program this morning and it seems they might be seeing an unusually high number of spoiled ballots. Damn I wish I’d thought of that. > > Let’s see what the news is after lunch. The spoiled ballots are probably down to the idiotic supplementary voting system being used. Each ballot paper had two columns for 1st and 2nd preference and you had to put an X against a different candidate in each column. I bet there were plenty of people who either voted for the same person in each column or entered a “1” and “2” :smack: Anyway the turn out in Thames Valley was apparently only 13.3%. I did make the effort and vote for what I considered the least worst option but I can’t blame anyone for not voting. We received no printed material from any of the candidates and even on line it looks like they were limited to a 300 words - how do you judge anyone based on a 300 word election puff? ETA Should have said I consider the whole thing a really bad idea. I’m fed up about the political hacks standing but I’d rather see them in charge than some single issue nutter. Always possible with such low turn-outs. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-police-commissioner-elections/639313/27 "2012-11-16T15:59:29Z")
[QUOTE=MarcusF] The spoiled ballots are probably down to the idiotic supplementary voting system being used. [/QUOTE] Not necessarily, it does seem that at least some have been spoiled deliberately. It seems even spoiled votes are counted as “turnout”, at least initially. So I’m still glad I didn’t go. Amongst many other things The Tories are blaming… THE TIME OF YEAR! What? They fracking called this, they didn’t notice the date? They are also blaming voters not knowing what PCCs are for, this is a first go round… etc. They are wilfully ignoring, or in denial that an awful lot of us simply do not want this political post to exist. and DC himself is saying that 50% of a 15% turnout counts as a mandate (his word). One polling station in Wales scored _no votes at all_. ---
**Author:** ![Malden\_Capell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malden_capell/32/5274_2.png) [@Malden\_Capell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malden_Capell)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-police-commissioner-elections/639313/28 "2012-11-16T18:04:17Z")
The spoiled ballots had a _lot_ of people actively opposed to electing them in the first place. I even saw one on Tumblr where someone put ‘Sam Vimes’ as a write-in 😃 What’s more, in the by-elections, the turnout seems to have been a fairly standard 45-50%. In other news, Lord Prescott was beaten in Humberside. ---
**Author:** ![Nancarrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@Nancarrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nancarrow)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-police-commissioner-elections/639313/29 "2012-11-18T21:50:29Z")
> [@Small\_Clanger](#): > > I’m not sure if you’re joking, but I’m in Milton Keynes and I see mounted police\* quite often. Are there none in London? > > \*and occasionally “evidence” of mounted police passing through. So with regards to the kind of evidence usually presented by the police to the British public, would you say the figurative is, in this case, literal? ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-police-commissioner-elections/639313/30 "2012-11-18T22:56:21Z")
Was turnout expected to be much higher than it was? Frankly, I’m surprised it’s that high. I don’t think a special election for a county sheriff around here would get more than 10% turnout. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-police-commissioner-elections/639313/31 "2012-11-19T14:31:39Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > [Surprise. Not that many people really cared.](http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/nov/15/police-crime-commissioners-election-turnout) It’s not that people didn’t care. It’s that habitual voters like me did not vote as a protest against the politicisation of the police. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-police-commissioner-elections/639313/32 "2012-11-19T14:49:51Z")
The problem with a protest vote like that in an election with 20% turnout is that next time Ronnie Cray might win election (well, if he weren’t dead). ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-police-commissioner-elections/639313/33 "2012-11-19T15:27:21Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > The problem with a protest vote like that in an election with 20% turnout is that next time Ronnie Cray might win election (well, if he weren’t dead). No. That’s a plus. Give them enough rope etc. I’ve no doubt we’ve elected a bunch of loons. ‘Independent’ in local election terms being short-hand for ‘Raving Lunatic, slightly to the right of Genghis Khan’. These elections should have been held with local elections in May. And where places weren’t part of the local cycle some fraction of the £100 million this election cost could have been spent on communicating with the electorate. As there was no money for mailshots I’d like to know where it all went. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-police-commissioner-elections/639313/34 "2012-11-19T15:29:56Z")
These elections shouldn’t have been held at all. Have you learned nothing from your cross-pond friends? We elect every official in sight. ---
**Author:** ![Double\_Foolscap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@Double\_Foolscap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Double_Foolscap)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-police-commissioner-elections/639313/35 "2012-11-19T15:30:21Z")
> [@tagos](#): > > It’s not that people didn’t care. It’s that habitual voters like me did not vote as a protest against the politicisation of the police. Unfortunately, people will read whatever they want into a non-voter’s motivations. It’s a shame the polling cards didn’t have an option to send them back with a reason ticked as to why. Some kind of non-vote vote. ---
**Author:** ![dimmy\_derko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/43a26b/32.png) [@dimmy\_derko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dimmy_derko)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-police-commissioner-elections/639313/36 "2012-11-19T15:40:53Z")
There’ll be people up among the higher echelons pointing to this poor turnout and reminding each other that _this_ was why the masses were just a slightly advanced cattle variant that needed to be controlled, otherwise, who knows what they’d do… or worse still, wouldn’t do, like continue to work for these money-grabbing scumbags for as little as they’ll part with. The smarter ones will be looking on and thinking, damn, are these sheep becoming self-aware? ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-police-commissioner-elections/639313/37 "2012-11-19T17:35:04Z")
[QUOTE=dimmy derko] …looking on and thinking, damn, are these sheep becoming self-aware? [/QUOTE] Yeah. Dimly aware of a certain unease in the air… Bleating and babbling we fell on his neck with a scream Wave upon wave of demented avengers March cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-police-commissioner-elections/639313.md?page=1)