Counting Votes in Brentwood

After going to many election counts over the years, Thursday night was strange. A number of reasons , a different colour rossette, no hope of winning. Perhaps also because I felt like the old lag who'd seen it all. Yet I must admit to real enthusiasm and some excitement.

What became apparent was that the Green vote was equally spread throughout the constituency. 45-60 votes in each ward. Jess got 584 votes (1.15%) of the vote. My optimism springs from the fact that no election address was distributed, no leafletting/canvassing, and across the seat progressive votes move to the Lib Dems in the distant hope of unseating the Tory. In fact Eric Pickles increaded his majority securing 28,793 votes, this nearest challenger the Lib Dem 11,872.

The count saw local councillors and county councillors rolling their sleeves up to act as vote checkers. We had a good presence, indeed one of the ring wing groups commented on our numbers.

The result came out just before 4am, Pickles who'd hardly been seen in Brentwood during the campaign, commented that his absence had increased his majority ! Jess did some media work, and got home to watch some more results before finally deciding that sleep was a smart move at 4.50am !