Today I set off to collect signatures for my nomination papers for the local elections.

Anybody who has never stood for elections might be surprised by the number of forms that need to be filled in:So far, I have:

• Nomination paper – requiring the signatures of ten registered voters in the area
• Appointment of agents to attend the opening of postal votes form
• Appointment of counting agents form
• Appointment of election agent form
• Registration of political parties form
• Certificate to use the official party emblem
• Candidate’s consent to nomination

Of course, the first is the worst.  The easiest thing to do is to get in touch with party members and get them to sign the papers for you, but that is easier said than done.  In my particular area some of the members I know to be on holiday, with it being a sunny day many of the others were just not in.  I ended up doing it the old-fashioned way.

I picked a street and went along it knocking on doors, asking whoever answered if they would sign my papers for me, and kept going until the form was full.  This requires a certain amount of guts to do, and it does not come naturally to me, although in the end it did not take too long.

As the Labour party has never had anybody elected for anything in Horsham you might think it would be hard to find voters, let alone somebody willing to sign forms, but I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was.

I’m still glad it is out of the way though.