Coming to a letterbox near you

C&RT voting papers

February 2012

At last, the stating whistle has blown and the C&RT Council election voting has commenced.

Its not quite the New Hampshire Primaries, nor are there any photo opportunities of the Captain and Belle proudly casting their votes at the ballot box, but the race is on. The early birds have already cast their votes using the on line option and now the paper ballot forms have been arriving through snowbound letterboxes across the nation.

I have to say the the say that the sense of excitement is, how shall we put it.... indiscernible!

With a month to go we are all in for a long wait to hear the outcome.

So, if an imposing envelope from the Electoral Reform Society is sitting on your doorstep its time for action.

My 150 word manifesto 

My particular thanks to my sponsors, 10 of whom are listed above. In the event I was over blessed with sponsors and chose 10 at random, so my apologies to those whose names do not appear - your support is appreciated.

The pack includes a list of all the candidates together with their 150 word manifesto's - mine can be found at the foot of page 16.

It will be really interesting to see what the response rate is like, and I sincerely hope that the boating community will do itself justice and return most of the ballot papers. This is a Single Transferable Vote so you list your preferred candidates in order of preference. Ideally, I would love to see your ballot paper to look like the following example!

 A perfectly completed ballot paper

But don't leave it there. Your vote needs to be cast either by snail mail in the envelope provided or via the internet, which is the quick and easy option.

So, happy voting one and all. As for Belle and myself, we are just off to kiss a few babies and squeeze in another press conference before flying back to out constituency to await the announcement by the returning officer.....

Am I getting this election a bit out of proportion?