St Albans Council election, 2002
Encyclopedia
The 2002 St Albans Council election took place on 2 May 2002 to elect members of St Albans
District
Council in Hertfordshire
, England
. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control
.
A trial took place in Sopwell and Verulam wards
under which voters could vote either by internet
, phone
, post
or at the polling station
using a touch screen system. The internet voting trial was funded by the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions as part of an attempt to get more people involved in elections. As a result of the trial one of the wards set the fastest declaration time at only 4 minutes after the close of polling. However turnout
was actually down by 1% and 3% in the 2 wards involved.
As well as the 3 main political parties, voters could also vote for the No Candidate Deserves My Vote! party in some wards, which was standing in order to give voters the chance to register their abstention
at the polls.
After the election, the composition of the council was
City and District of St Albans
The City of St Albans , also known as the City and District of St Albans or District of St Albans, is a local government district, in Hertfordshire, England. It was created in 1974 and since then has held the status of non-metropolitan district and city. The local authority is St Albans City Council...
District
Non-metropolitan district
Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially shire districts, are a type of local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan counties in a so-called "two-tier" arrangement...
Council in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control
No overall control
Within the context of local councils of the United Kingdom, the term No Overall Control refers to a situation in which no single party achieves a majority of seats and is analogous to a hung parliament...
.
A trial took place in Sopwell and Verulam wards
Wards of the United Kingdom
A ward in the United Kingdom is an electoral district at sub-national level represented by one or more councillors. It is the primary unit of British administrative and electoral geography .-England:...
under which voters could vote either by internet
Electronic voting
Electronic voting is a term encompassing several different types of voting, embracing both electronic means of casting a vote and electronic means of counting votes....
, phone
Televoting
Televoting, telephone voting or phone voting is a method of decision making and opinion polling conducted by telephone. Televoting can also extend to voting by SMS text message via a mobile cell phone.- Broadcast contest televoting :...
, post
Postal voting
Postal voting describes the method of voting in an election whereby ballot papers are distributed or returned by post to electors, in contrast to electors voting in person at a polling station or electronically via an electronic voting system....
or at the polling station
Polling station
A polling place or polling station is where voters cast their ballots in elections.Since elections generally take place over a one- or two-day span on a periodic basis, often annual or longer, polling places are often located in facilities used for other purposes, such as schools, churches, sports...
using a touch screen system. The internet voting trial was funded by the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions as part of an attempt to get more people involved in elections. As a result of the trial one of the wards set the fastest declaration time at only 4 minutes after the close of polling. However turnout
Voter turnout
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...
was actually down by 1% and 3% in the 2 wards involved.
As well as the 3 main political parties, voters could also vote for the No Candidate Deserves My Vote! party in some wards, which was standing in order to give voters the chance to register their abstention
Abstention
Abstention is a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote or, in parliamentary procedure, is present during the vote, but does not cast a ballot. Abstention must be contrasted with "blank vote", in which a voter casts a ballot willfully made invalid by...
at the polls.
After the election, the composition of the council was
- ConservativeConservative Party (UK)The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
21 - Liberal Democrat 20
- LabourLabour Party (UK)The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
15 - IndependentIndependent (politician)In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...
1 - Vacant 1