Polling Day Three – Live Blog

12.14 – Good day to all on this rainy final day of polling in the QUBSU elections, and the final day of the Gown’s live blog.

12.16 – Firstly, some statistics. Yesterday’s polling has changed the tables of the highest turnout per school :

1 – School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy  – 28.7% (+7% on Day 1)

2 – School of Law    –  27.9% (+10% on Day 1)

3 – School of Geography, Archaeology & Palaeoecology –  24.9% (+5.7 % on Day 1)

12.19 – The number of students who have voted as of 11am stands at 3252 which continuing with the trend is down from last year which stood at 3370. Turnout is down 3.5% on last year, which is a drop further from the 2% fall on day two compared with statistics from last year.

12.22 – As today is a day with weather that feels decidedly grim compared to the last few days of sunshine, canvassers may have a very hard time finding people willing to stop and chat. Even if they have free sweets.

12.25 – The Twittersphere and Facebook are alive with the sounds of complaining and mudslinging, from casual observation.

12.27 – This may have been the most officially complained about election in QUB history. We’ll try to find out how many official complaints have been lodged later today, as we can tell, it’s a lot.

12.33 – Here’s a snapshot of some guidelines that were reportedly found in the PFC. It made us laugh. Click on the image to enlarge it.

12.35 – There’s been a lot of local businesses involved in this year’s elections. The latest endorsement has come from the SU branch of Clements. Opinions on a post card (or just a comment) please.

Please see our live blog from day two of polling to view a picture of Paul Walsh eating at Build a Burger. This photo, posted to Facebook, launched an official complaint and no further action was to be taken.

12.39 – Here’s a few more endorsements. One from ‘Knee Deep’ a club night at El Divino. Followed by a promotional post by Backin’ Students campaign manager.

12.44 – Here’s one of Martin Lilly being endorsed by another club night, the somewhat less imaginatively named Bot Wednesdays.

12.50 – As of 12 noon, voter turn out stands at 3380, again, down from last year’s 3455.

12.51 – The last polling figures were received last night at 5pm and stood at 2620. As of 8am on day three, 3102 had voted. There was an overnight leap of 482. That’s a smaller increase than last year’s 504 leap over the same period.

2.37 – We’ve just tallied up our poll prediction surveys. We’ll post the results shortly.

2.45 – Turnout stands at 3619 which is down from 3586 at the same time last year.

2.55 – Our first question asked was “Do you know that there’s an election going on, do you know what their for?” 1 is the value of those who responded yes, 2 in the value of those who responded no.

3.01 – Our second question asked was “Do you plan to vote?”

 Of those who answered, if not, why not?

3.05 – Our next questions were all about who respondents intended to vote for .

SU President

 VP Campaigns & Communications
VP Clubs & Societies

VP Community

VP Equality & Diversity

VP Education

VP Welfare

3.20 – Voting turn out stands at 3730 down from 3802 at the same time last year.

4.12 – Turnout at 4pm was 3880, down from 4124.

4.13 – We’re having a chat with Chelsea Worth, she tells us that the most exciting thing she’s seen all day is that the screen around the makeshift polling station in the SU Foyer fell down and frightened everyone.

4.59 – *countdown theme tune*

5.00 – Polling is now closed. We’ll be back to live blog the results from around 7pm onwards.