This was my first campaign. I have to say it was educational. It was also extremely hard work, particularly in the last days when the tempo really hots up.
What you see on the doorstep, in terms of leaflets delivered and canvassers knocking on doors is only a small part of a very large operation.
Leaflets need to be written, set into delivery routes.
Canvass sheets need to be produced, but after they have been filled in, what is on them needs to be entered back into a computer system to make the information useful.
It is a big organisation, and it ticks along all the way to polling day.
Surely that is when the campaign ends? Not a bit of it. Polling day is a day of unremitting hard work, running around getting the vote out. I was literally running at stages in the day! I thought I was so unfit that I could not run out of sight on a dark night, but the adrenaline of election day gives you energy.
So after having worked from well before the polls opened to when they closed some 15 hours later it had been a long and very hard day. Normally I would have gone straight on to the count, but this year that was not to be. We did the count the following day.
The problem is you don't want to sleep straight away! My running mate Katy Bourne, Peter Bradbury, now the newly elected County Councilor for Cuckfield and Lucastes decided to have a drink and a chat. That was good.
Then came the count. I was so tired I missed my alarm and ended getting to the count which started at 8.30 at 10 instead. The count went on and on and on. I still had energy left though, as it was exciting! We had some key battlegrounds we needed to win, as well as being aware we would be squeezed in areas where we did not want to be squeezed.
Since the end of he count and the loss of the adrenaline I have been completely exhausted! I have had an almost complete lack of energy.
That said I am just about feeling it coming back now as I return to normal.
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6 comments:
Exhausting, but fun. We had our count straight away - thank goodness - although that did mean getting to bed at around 4.40am.
Andrew, I would have preferred your count! Mine lasted 13 and a half hours!
Well done for turning the east Riding very blue!
I was out leafletting in the days leading up to the election too. Unfortunately we didn't do very well in our target wards. Blame UKIP. We did better in wards which we had never contested before than we did in our target wards.
I am glad the count was on the morning and only lasted about 4 hours.
youdontknowme, Where abouts were you standing?
Eston, its a ward in Redcar and Cleveland. My ward wasn't a target ward though so we didn't leaflet it.
youdontknowme, Fair enough. Long as you had fun!
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