Polls closing, let the counting begin

Well election day is now done and dusted. Votes have been cast andwithin the hour ballot boxes will be sealed and prepped ready for transfer to the counting centres. It's been a long day for the Council staff working in the polling stations.

It's no doubt been a tense day of final campaigning for election candidates across the UK with seats in Town & Parish Councils, Unitary Authorities, County and District Councils and a Westminster by-election in South Shields (courtesy of David Milliband) all happening on this Thursday 02 May. I'm sure there are some exhausted candidates and their supporters out there

Here in Redruth South, I expect that our 3 candidates for Cornwall Council, the unitary council which runs Cornwall, will tonight be trying their best to get a good night's sleep before  tomorrow's vote count begins over at Carn Brea Leisure centre in the morning.

The Council's election officers are expecting the first Divisional results to be announced "around lunch time" and I suspect we will get news drip fed throughout the day and possibly into the evening.

Here in Redruth South and in our neighbouring Divisions (Redruth Central, Redruth North, Four Lanes etc) it will be interesting to see how many of us have turned out to vote - remember we had a whopping 39% turnout here in 2009 - and, crucially, who will be our Cornwall Councillor for the next Council which runs from now until the next election in May 2017. 

For Cornwall as a whole the picture is intriguing. Some of the key questions are:

Will a single group be successful enough to win control of the Council?

What will happen to the share of the vote for the Coalition partners in the UK Government (i.e. the Conservatives and the Lib Dems)?

Will the Independent candidates do well in Cornwall?

Will the Labour and Mebyon Kernow increase their representation on the Council?

Will we see our first UKIP and Green Councillors in Cornwall?

The permutations are probably endless and completely beyond me! I shall be watching with interest. 

For those of you who are interested in seeing the developing picture, Cornwall Council's very clever web team have put together a really good clickable site which helps you to track how our votes are colouring in the map of Cornwall.

Here is the link to it ...

Cornwall live election map 2013 (opens in a new window)