For ten years into the 21st century, it's quite an archaic system. You turn up with or without your polling card but you could be anyone. A clerk ticks you off. You receive a ballot paper and put a cross against one name in a constituency bearing a name lost in local government reorganisation 14 years ago. This task you probably perform on a plastic assemblage these days rather than wooden booth, returning the paper to a locked but insubstantial box. This is collected and trunked to the counting centre. Bank clerks and other specialists thumb through each of the papers from the box. Then they sum all the boxes for the constituency. At least it seems to produce a result and fairly quickly. And, in the event, there was no surprise locally, with this area reverting to type, with a clear rather than slim blue majority.
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