No point waiting up for the Crawley election results; the count is not until tomorrow morning.  Its not a popular decision with many candidates or activists, but I think its one of the best things the council have done.

After weeks of dragging yourself around in the rain after work and giving up the weekend lie-ins when you approach the close of the polls its great to not have to think about showering off all the sweat, changing into something presentable and heading back out again.

I expect the counting will be over long before I finish work tomorrow.  I don’t know how it will go, but early indications were that the turnout in Broadfield South could be well over 20%, which is good to see whatever the result is.

The really good thing about doing the count on Friday morning is that it is likely to be quicker and better. In the past the counts here have been tortuous to the point that its tempting to call the Zimbabwean authorities and ask for some tips for speeding it up.  One reason for that is that the tellers have mostly either done a full day at the Town Hall or an even fuller day manning polling stations.  Who is not going to be a bit careless counting almost identical slips of paper after spending up to 15 hours in a community centre?

Having teams of tellers doing the job after a good night’s sleep can only improve the accuracy.  Maybe this year they will be able to  work on the speed.  I’m sure they were counting the wards in series rather than in parallel last year.