Comments on: Europe 2009 – Denmark

By: Ben Raue

Ben Raue — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:40:16 +0000

This article on the Labour leadership crisis refers to local election results coming out on Friday and European results coming out on Sunday.

By: Ben Raue

Ben Raue — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:39:19 +0000

I’ll try to liveblog when results come in. However I remember reading somewhere that the UK wouldn’t be counting the European votes until Sunday. Although this would still mean results coming out before voting closes in the vast majority of the Union.

By: Justin-Paul Sammons

Justin-Paul Sammons — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 06:43:19 +0000

I don’t see why it can’t be a public holiday for all – it’s not like Easter and Christmas are only for Christians. Europe Day is 9 May, so maybe the ballot should be moved to then; celebrate the founding of the EU, and vote. Admittedly, not everyone celebrates the fact that there’s an EU, but the same goes for all other public holidays.

In other news, I hear that the Dutch are voting with paper ballots for the first time in ages due to concerns about security of the electronic voting machines. This means that the results will take a lot longer to come through than I stated earlier in this thread.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 04:43:16 +0000

I agree Europe should vote on the same day. The as the vast majority vote on Sundays, Europe should vote on a Sunday. Make it a public holiday only for those who vote (probably too hard to do).

By: Justin-Paul Sammons

Justin-Paul Sammons — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:28:19 +0000

The Netherlands will repeat its actions of the 2004 elections and release provisional results the same night.

http://euobserver.com/9/28225

While I understand the logic behind holding all results until everyone else has voted, it rests on two assumptions which I would argue are false:

1) Voters are voting on European issues (mostly, they’re voting on national issues);

2) That voters are influenced by votes from other countries. I highly doubt that any such influence would be enough to shift seats.

The best solution, in my opinion, would be to have all countries vote on the same day and declare this a Europe-wide public holiday to ensure everyone gets the chance to make it to the ballot box.

So if most of the results won’t be announced until late Sunday in Europe, that will be early Monday morning in Australia. It’s a good thing we have a public holiday then!

By: Justin-Paul Sammons

Justin-Paul Sammons — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:16:55 +0000

Really? I don’t remember that; I was in the Netherlands at the time and we got the results that night as always happens.

Oh wait, I see it was the Netherlands who broke the embargo! Ha! They avoided court action by saying that the rules didn’t say anything about providing progressive results as long as the final results were not announced.

We’ll see if that happens again this time.

By: Nick C

Nick C — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 02:10:17 +0000

Last time there was an embargo on reporting the results until all countries had voted (although I think at least one country broke the rules and reported results early). Is that not the case this time?

By: Justin-Paul Sammons

Justin-Paul Sammons — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 01:33:09 +0000

The first results (Netherlands) will be known around 7:30am-8:00am tomorrow morning. Almost everyone votes electronically there so it only takes a few hours to count the entire country. I imagine the UK results will take longer to count, and remember that most countries won’t go to the polls until Saturday and Sunday – it’s only the UK, Netherlands and Ireland who go before then (the Czechs vote Friday and Saturday).

By: Stewart J

Stewart J — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:57:27 +0000

Hey Ben & co – will you be blogging the results as they come in? I imagine they wont start coming in until mid-Saturday morning EST.