June 8th: General Elections

Unless you've been on another planet for the past few weeks, you'll know a general election is being held in the UK today. Here are a few facts about UK general elections.

1. Parliament has to be dissolved before an election takes place, usually 25 working days before the election date. At this point, all parliamentary business ends and the role of MP ceases to exist until after polling day.
2. The UK is divided up into 650 parliamentary constituencies, each one represented by a member of parliament in the House of Commons. 533 are in England, 59 in Scotland, 40 in Wales and 18 in Northern Ireland.
3. The largest constituency is Ross, Skye and Lochaber, measuring approximately 12,000 square kilometres. The smallest is Islington North at 7.35km. This is in terms of area. In terms of population, or number of potential voters, Islington North is bigger than Ross, Skye and Lochaber.
4. Elections always seem to be held on a Thursday. This hasn't always been the case, although the last one not to be on a Thursday was on Tuesday October 27, 1931. It's thought the preference for Thursdays was because pay day was traditionally on a Friday so people were less likely to get drunk and forget to vote if the election was held the day before. It's not set in stone, even so. The Electoral Commission has suggested making polling day at the weekend to improve turnout.
5. The lowest turnout at a UK general election was at the end of World War I when the polling stations saw just 57.2% of eligible voters turn up. The highest was in 1950 when 83.9% of electors cast their vote.
6. Polling stations are open from 7am to 10pm on polling day. Ballot papers cannot be issued before 7am and can only be issued after 10pm to those already in the queue at or outside the polling station at 10pm.
7. The first constituency to declare their results in the past five elections has been in Sunderland. In 2010, Houghton and Sunderland South declared a winner at 10.52pm. They are hoping to hold on to the record, or even beat it, and have switched to lighter ballot papers to speed the process up even more.
8. It's commonly said that the Queen is not allowed to vote. That isn't true - she could if she wanted to, but has decided that the monarch must be politically neutral and that it would be unconstitutional for her, or her heir, to vote.
9. The most marginal constituency is Fermanagh and South Tyrone in Northern Ireland, where Michelle Gildernew once won by four votes - then three of those votes were challenged in court, so the majority in the end was just one vote.
10. A tie is highly unlikely, but should the two leading candidates ever get exactly the same number of votes, the precedent has been that it resolved by the Returning Officer’s casting vote. This could take the form of drawing lots. Fighting a duel is not permitted. There hasn't been a tie since 1886 in Ashton-under-Lyne.

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