Some parishes were reporting voter turnout on a par with previous elections, which had been run in a similar format with polling stations open 08:00-20:00 again.
While there were very few people waiting to vote when polling stations opened this morning, with St Andrews, St Martins, St Sampsons and Castel all relatively quiet until 10:00, turnout was picking up throughout the day at most douzaine offices and designated polling booths.
By lunchtime the Vale had registered around 400 votes cast. Deputy Neil Inder said that turnout increased steadily throughout the early part of the afternoon.
Vale Douzaine Room 1800 votes cast by 4pm, add in the Rue Manguy at around another 200 that’s 2000 votes and around 35% of votes cast in the Vale. If reflected around whole of the Island we should reach the 40% t/out which binds the States. Big rush will be from 5-7pm
— tothevale (@tothevale) October 10, 2018
Elsewhere, turnout in the western parishes was steady as well, with 159 people voting by 16:00 at the Torteval Douzaine room and approximately 229 voting by then at Forest Douzaine room which was described as “good compared to the 2016 electron, where we had 300 odd for the whole day.”
In St Andrews 290 people had voted at the Douzaine room by 16:00 while 775 had turned out by then at the Castel Douzaine room.
Pictured: Votes have been cast across the island and will be counted tomorrow.
Under a previous machinery of government, Guernsey had Conseillers, who were elected on an island wide basis and were seen as more senior States members.
That system was scrapped and we now have 38 deputies elected on a district basis. But the question of island wide voting has never gone away, leading us to today’s referendum which gives us five options including methods of introducing island wide voting, partial island wide voting and the current parochial district system, along with a modified district system.
Pictured: The five options available for people to vote for at today’s referendum. Everyone who is registered to vote can put up to five choices down listed 1-5 in order of preference.
Registered voters can use any polling station within the electoral district in which they are registered until 20:00.
While the majority of polling stations remain the same as they were for the 2016 General Election, there have been some changes in the Castel and the West that voters in those districts need to be aware of:
- People in the Castel will be able to cast their vote at the Douzaine Room and the King George V Centre, Rue Cohu, Castel
- There will only be one polling station in St Saviour at the Community Centre in Neuf Chemin
- In St. Pierre du Bois, the polling station will be at the Community Centre in Rue des Brehauts, which has a greater level of accessibility than the previous venue used
Maps for all the polling stations have been created and are available to download on the gov.gg/referendum page.
Pictured: St Andrew’s Douzaine hosted a polling station today.
Registration to vote in the referendum, and applications for postal votes closed last week, with 31,685 names on the electoral roll when it was closed. Anyone who was on the electoral roll, and hadn’t moved house or changed their personal details since the general election in 2016 remains on the roll and eligible to vote today.
For the result of the referendum to be binding on the States there has to be a turnout of 40% which is the equivalent to 12,746 voters turning out.
Pictured: Today is the day the referendum on island wide voting takes place.