Election night is under threat from the number of local authorities deferring counts until Friday.
We suffered this blight ourselves in the County/Local count recently and I for one missed a major count for the first time since 1974. The combined Dover/Shepway count was also a compete fiasco, badly organised and very, very late....
While we might reluctantly suffer this for a local election or the oh-so-boring European 'PR' count a General Election is another thing.
According to the Sunday Times around a quarter of authorities, possibly more, may well delay the count for the general election until Friday. I wont repeat here all the arguments against this, the thread link below provides plently of good reasons and I would urge everyone of whatever party, or none, to get behind this.
We need two matters adressed right now locally:
1/ A commitment from DDC to hold the Dover count as normal of Friday immediately after polls close.
2/ A commitment not to repeat the failed combined count with Shepway and to keep the Dover count in the Town Hall.
I would also urge everyone to get on board the national campaigns against the move to Friday counts.
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/thetorydiary/2009/09/save-general-election-night.html