Over at the Vote UK Forum there’s a bit of a discussion about a possible Mayoral referendum in Stoke-on-Trent. This is to say the least a rather niche political issue (unless you live in Stoke - any Potteries readers want to show themselves?) and I’m far from an expert on it, but I did think this comment was interesting:
The date of the referendum will apparently be either 23 or 30 October, with the latter date being after the clocks have gone back. One fears that the turnout will suffer if voters are being asked to go and vote on a date when darkness descends before six o’clock.
I wonder what the poster who made that comment would think of the prospect of a referendum - albeit an all-postal one - being conducted in the middle of December. Yet this is exactly what will happen for the TIF poll.
I do agree with many of the concerns raised. An all-postal referendum in the middle of the festive rush is likely to see both a depressed turnout and a whole stack of ballots declared invalid having been posted in time and held up in the Christmas post. It’s also far from clear that the new registers will be ready in time, leaving thousands of voters disenfranchised entirely.
I can understand the wish to hold the referendum as quickly as possible, but it would hardly be a travesty of democracy to wait until January. For the Labour Council leaders to say that “voters would lose faith in the process if the election was put back until January” is hypocrisy in the extreme - if Labour hadn’t dragged their feet over a referendum it could have been done and dusted by now!
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