Creeting St Peter - news from the polling station

I wandered over to our village polling station this evening, just to see how things are going. The presiding officer and his assistant have probably drawn one of the easier polling station, as the parish has an electorate of 215, but they have stoically awaited voters all day. As at 7.45 this evening, the turnout was 65, or 30.2%. Add postal voters, and the turnout will probably be close to 40%.

Now that equates to approximately one voter every twelve minutes, which might not sound very impressive, but the presiding officer asked me to note their view that voters here are really polite and friendly, and that they've enjoyed being here. Violet, the church warden has made sure that their day is comfortable by sweeping the hall, making sure that the toilet is properly supplied and that the kitchen is spotless, and they are very grateful.

We take much of our democracy for granted, but without the presiding officer and other poll workers, turnout and thus participation would be much lower, so many thanks to both of them for their efforts today.