On the day Johnson wants for his general election the UK sunset is the earliest for the year



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Going dark so early will surely will have an impact

We all know that the nights are very long in December when Mr. Johnson, wants to have his general election. This will be decided in the Commons on Monday.

Looking through the times of sunset December 12th happens to be the earliest of the year throughout the UK this year. In London it goes dark at 1551 and it gets earlier the further you go up north. In Aberdeen it will be 1527.

The day with the latest sunrise, the winter solstice, is December 22nd. I hadn’t realised until checking this that the earliest sunset and the latest sunrise do not happen on the same day.

Whatever this is going to be an issue as all physical matters relating to people’s ability to vote can have an impact on the outcome.

If December 12th does go ahead then you can be sure that in key election battlegrounds the parties will work very hard to get more people to vote by post. That’s likely to be the main thrust of campaigning until the postal vote registration deadline closes.

In many ways the local parties with strong organisations will welcome this for it is a good reason to be talking to voters early. It is also a great way of galvanising volunteers earlier than usual.

Currently about 20% of electors are registered to vote by post a total that hasn’t changed much in the past few years.

An issue with postal voting is that most of those who do it this way usually return their ballot packs almost as soon as they can after they arrive. For this group what happens in the final period of the campaign might not matter. They will have voted and be impervious to the finale of the campaign.

Mike Smithson

Follow @MSmithsonPB



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