A political journey

Of course, it always starts with a small taste. In my case when my mum was elected as a Councillor. We kids got dragged around a fair bit during campaigning and you kind of wanted to see the results coverage. In Bristol in the 1960's there was a Council election every year. And I got the habit. Not just for locals, but General Elections too. Cheering on my mum's party because the rest were almost certainly corrupt rotters.

TV may have changed, but the essentials were there. I started to learn about the conventions of Election TV, still my favourite type of news programme. I met the authoritative main presenter, the 'Dimbleby', the often-eccentric guy with a swingometer (now a video wall). The outside broadcasts from local or regional journos, getting a national TV shot.

I slowly learnt the joy of watching the politicians inevitable excuses for a loss, or the winners complete vindication in each win. The confident optimistic explanations at the start followed much later, when a lot of people had gone to bed, with some rather more honest and informative discussion.

Inevitably it led to more, to get my 'fix'. American Presidential elections were a surprisingly early discovery. in 1968, the year of protest, you could spot exactly who Nixon and Wallace were. For those who don't know, of the two, Wallace was a lot more worrying. So I was for Hubert Humphrey that year. Even at the age of 11 you could tell the difference! I was a precocious little brat.

Governments come and go, but elections were, and are, constant. I watched them all, even European ones. Veterans in this field know there are certain things you need to get through the night. A comfortable chair to start, followed by a not too lumpy sofa for the final push/nap to morning. A mixture of alcohol and coffee for different stages and states of mind.

You really should have a map from the paper. (I remember in one year ITN produced an election guide in paperback. It was sheer heaven.) A day off arranged for the next day is a good idea. If you are extremely lucky, your partner may be willing to be pretend to be interested in your post-election analysis in the morning, so think about your presentation.

The surprising thing to some might be how much humour you can find. As the night wears on there are some wry smiles.

Most of my life has seen the likes of David Dimbleby for the relaxing bits and maybe a Robin Day for the attack dog mode. I'm very much a BBC man here, part of the habit. I can see some successors emerging. Christian Fraser is definitely being groomed for the key role.

And there are absurdities and surprises throughout. Somebody fluffs a line and accidentally reveals a truth, or a vote is decided by the toss of a coin. An unpopular politician gets defeated and the other side have to try to restrain themselves from doing a victory lap… but you can tell they want to.

All this stuff makes it a very open process. Things shift all the time, but it's there in full view if you read between the lines. If you ever get bored, play Election Bingo. Write down some key words you know you'll hear and mark them off as you go. It's unlikely you'll ever find anybody else who wants to play, but who knows.

Now, I'm as likely as not to be surrounded by two laptops (with a spare screen for another feed). The internet provides me with multiple TV feeds, websites, and updates. These came into their own during the recent American 5-day marathon.

Later, it's TV and sofa. It's seemed strange to watch the same party in one state wanting to keep counting postal votes and in another demanding they stop counting. I don't know what the fuss is all about. America has used postal voting far longer than we have, dating back to soldiers in the War of 1812. That was a little trade-based (surprise!) disagreement with us in fact. During it, we burnt down the original White House. They probably don't remember though.

In the 1864 election it was soldiers postal votes during the Civil War that re-elected the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln. I doubt they remember that either. No, elections can be peculiar. We used to be able to bribe voters with food and drink back in the 18th century when the Rotten Boroughs existed. There were very few voters though…and obviously many of them were drunk. We've moved on. It's completely prohibited to offer inducements, even a cup cake. Also, it would be a lot of cup cakes now.

In recent years, I've had the chance to observe election procedures up close and at first hand as a candidate or agent. From talking to the responsible officers during the period, going to the polling stations, attending the count, it's been quite reassuring to see how carefully organised the process is.

There's a certain wry acceptance that there's a common purpose here. With a few jokes and a bit of gossip between candidates we all know we're people in the same boat with shared experience. That's something I can't answer for as far as American candidates go, but the attitude of their election officials, counters and their entirely serious purpose is exactly the same as ours. It just takes a lot longer.

Voting is a peculiar business, and there are lots of tweaks you could make to it, but the basic idea of 'one vote each and count them all' has been running for 2,600 years now. We've argued a lot about who each includes but nobody has come up with a better or fairer principle yet.

Odd results of democracy do occur. The following candidates were all elected. Yo-yo, the billy goat in Brazil; Boston Curtis, a mule in Washington State; Pulvapies, a foot powder In Ecuador; a cat in Alaska; and assorted cats and dogs in the USA. All the elected mayors in Rabbit Hash, Kentucky have reportedly been dogs.

My personal favourite though must be Bosco, a black Labrador/Rottweiler mix who served as honorary mayor of Sunoi, California from 1981 to his death in 1994. His constant re-election was put down to the fact that 'he was a very good boy, yes he was'.

Alastair McCraw is the chair of Babergh's overview and scrutiny committee and district councillor for Brantham