Day out on the Poll


On Thursday 23rd May 2019 another election took place for European candidates. 
My Dad has been involved in working in the elections for years as polling station manager and advised they were taking applications for Poll Clerk so I did a 5-minute application via email and I thought no more about it.
I got a call on the Friday 17th May asking me to come in on election day.  No training, no run through beforehand but they’d go through it all with me on the day. It was a long 16 hour shift from 6:15am to 10:15pm but the money was good so I agreed.  A bit of variety would be good and get me out of my own office for a day!
I was stationed at a local Primary school a short distance from my home in a semi-rough area of East Belfast.  Some of the things that happened were noteworthy…


  1. Several people came in to vote with their adorable dogs.  One of which was a bloodhound/pointer cross who stood dramatically at the door awaiting his owner.
  2. A man came in to vote with his snake dramatically draped around his neck.
  3. A man entered who looked to be a normal man in his late 20’s until he looked to the right and he had a huge swastika tattoo spanning the right side of his neck.
  4. A fashion conscious male individual arrived with a white polo shirt on.  When he turned to the back there was a picture of King Billy on a horse in the middle.  On top of the graphic were the words “NO SURRENDER” and below the picture it said “PROUD TO BE A PROD”

    I wonder who this kind gentleman voted for.
  5. Jim Allister bombed (of TUV) came in wearing a suit and a ridiculous red white and blue rosette to greet all election workers.  In an attempt to remain neutral for the day I begrudgingly shook his hand.
  6. Two men who look like they’d mug you greeted us at the desk with thick Belfast accents.  One was registered to vote and I explained this was a preferential vote so put 1 beside your preferred candidate, 2 beside your second choice and so on.  You can go up to a maximum of 11 or however many you want to and leave the rest blank.

    He laughed, smirked at me and replied smugly with “If I put a 0 against Sinn Feinn does that mean I’m saying I want them to get no votes?!”
    “No if you do you’ll spoil your vote, you have to put 1 2 3 etc beside the candidates you want to vote for”
    “What if I put a big X beside them?!” at this point he and he friend were both giggling
    “No that will also spoil your vote”
    “Well I’m just going to vote for all the unionist parties and UKIP”
    “It’s up to yourself who you vote for, please go to the polling booth”
  7. The second of the men asked about voting and I explained how to register and that he would need to have a form of ID.  He then proceeded to tell me he had no ID because he “got his driving license taken off him”
  8. 70% of voters seemed to be people over the age of 65 clutching DUP leaflets.

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