Listen to English Election Day Lyrics

Today is the first Thursday in May, which is often an election day in Britain. People in many parts of England are voting today in local council elections. In Scotland there are elections to the Scottish Parliament, and in Wales there are elections to the Welsh a__embly. Our elections today are not as important or exciting as the French Presidential election on Sunday, but you may be interested to hear something about how they work. There is a separate vocabulary note with a list of words relating to elections.
To be honest with you, many British people don't think that today's elections are important or exciting either. Turnout for the local authority elections in England will probably be low - normally only 25 to 30% of voters bother to vote in local elections. Turnout for the elections in Scotland and Wales will probably be higher. But election day is always important and exciting for one group of people - primary school children. Many primary schools are used as polling stations - that is, places where people go to vote - so naturally the children get a day off school.
This morning I went to my polling station at our local primary school. Apart from myself, there were only two other voters there. The officials at the desk asked me for my name and address, and checked that I was on the election register. They gave me a ballot paper, which contained the names of the candidates and the political parties that they represent. There are seven candidates in our ward. I am allowed to vote for one candidate, by putting a cross beside his or her name on the ballot paper. Then I put the ballot paper into a locked ballot box, which is on the table beside the election officials.
This evening, after the polls close at 10pm, the locked ballot boxes will be taken to the local council offices in the centre of Birmingham. Officials will open the boxes and count the votes. Some people vote by post, and the officials will count the postal votes as well.
Each ward in Birmingham is electing one "councillor" in at this election. The person elected will simply be the candidate who gets most votes. We call this the "first past the post" electoral system - it is like a horse race; the only important thing is who gets to the finishing line first. We do not have proportional representation for local authorities, nor for elections to Parliament. But there is proportional representation for elections to the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh a__embly, and for the European Parliament. Some people think we should have proportional representation in all elections. The "first pass the post" system favours the big parties - Labour and the Conservatives - and naturally these parties do not want a change. Small parties, such as the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party, find it difficult to win any seats under "first past the post" - so they generally support proportional representation.
So what will happen in today's elections? In Birmingham, the local authority is run by a coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. The Labour party would like to regain control, but this is not likely at this election. Indeed, Labour is likely to lose seats at these elections, partly because the Labour government is unpopular at present. In Scotland, it is possible that the Scottish National Party will for the first time become the largest party in the Scottish Parliament. The SNP want complete independence for Scotland. We should know the results by tomorrow afternoon. I shall let you know what happens.