The last minute pitches for your vote

With one day to go until the election proper the parties and their supporters are making their last minute pitches to the electorate – or at least the 3/4 of the electorate who have not already voted by post.

Big Smoke thought it would be worth directing our readers to those unofficial, unaccredited arguments to help our readers make up their minds on how they are going to vote.

First, the Mayor.

• Boris Backer has fifty reasons to vote Boris.
• Siobhan Benita is given the thumbs up by Rocklandstv.
• Mundabor gives a brief indication that you should vote UKIP.
• Dave Hill in the Guardian is treating himself to the “luxury” of voting for Green candidate Jenny Jones.
• Nick Purves puts the case for Brian Paddick.
• Livingstone is the man according to Danny Hackett.

Incidentally there is an interesting discussion about the misrepresentation or misunderstanding around what first and second preference mean – specifcally in the case of Labour member Sunny Hundal who stated on twitter he was voting for the Greens’ Jenny Jones [1] and Ken  [2]  on the Mayoral. Some joyfully misrepresented this as some kind of anti-Ken statement but as Steve Hynd pointed out this is a perfectly reasonable position for Labour member to hold. Sunny also explains his own reasoning.

The BBC take on the last minute election. Londonist’s invaluable resource on the candidates.

Now the Assembly vote

If you follow Greens on twitter you’ll know they have done nothing in the last few days except bang on about voting Green on the “orange” paper (it’s actually a kind of burned sienna apparently). The reason for this is pretty simple, Greens actually get elected in the “List” vote where as a vote elsewhere for the Greens simply adds to the warm glow in their eco-hearts.

The same is true for the Lib Dems, although they’ve chosen to focus their campaign on their Mayoral candidate. I couldn’t vote Brian Paddick because no one will tell me what he used to do for a living. Was he a jewel thief? A banker? A coffee shop barrista? Why will the Liberal Democrats not tell us what his former profession was?

Those thinking of pick and mixing their vote (a growing number of you by the looks of it) would do well to bear in mind that if you are minded to give one vote to Labour or Conservatives and one vote to one of the small  parties the most effective way to do this is to vote for one of the “big two” on your constituency paper, and vote for the smaller party on the list paper – that way you might see your choice elected in both elections.