The voting update of March 17
It always feels like an exciting day, but this time even more than usual. The polling station volunteers were still chatting happily when I arrived, but they quickly jumped into political mode.
At the first booth, I had to show my voting card and driver's license, at the second I handed in my voting card, and at the third I received my ballot and my own corona pencil. By the way, I keep that pencil in my archive because it will one day have historical value. Just had to carefully manage the traffic (safety) regulations on the ground and then quickly into a booth. You would think I can do it by now, but I'm always afraid I'll do it wrong. Do I really only need to color one box red? Not fill in my name anywhere? Not put a signature? Nope, just deposit my ballot in the bin and I was done.
Let's go through how this voting day has been so far.
Kaag was there early
Sigrid was the first of the party leaders to vote in The Hague. Look, I think that's a sign that you're excited about it. Glasses on and just check the box. Who would she have voted for?
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Hugo is having a bad day
The first time De Jonge stood at the polling station, he turned out to have an expired passport. Not a problem in itself, because you can vote with a passport that has been expired for five years, unless it has holes punched in it, which it did. Minister De Jonge went home without being able to vote to get the correct paperwork. But it does make you think. If he was driving himself, as seen in the photo, why didn't De Jonge use his driver's license? Is our minister driving around without the right papers? Let's hope Grapperhaus doesn't hear about it. To make his day a little better, he also received a notification from the CoronaMelder, which means he has to quarantine until Saturday and then get tested. Mr. De Jonge is clearly not having a good day, let's hope that doesn't say anything about the election results for the CDA.
And the day is only halfway through....#WetvanMurphy
— Hugo de Jonge (@hugodejonge) March 17, 2021
Location, location, location
I was allowed to join in our local sports hall, but across the country, special locations are open to cast your vote. In the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft, for example, where the Oranges are buried. But the Senate and the dome prison in Arnhem have also been renamed polling stations today. It's definitely the outing of the year, so you might as well choose a nice ballot box. In Amsterdam, it suddenly became an option to go to the Melkweg or to be at The Hoxton for a bit. And in Rotterdam, voting took on an international flavor at the Wereldmuseum.
It's busy at the polling station
The turnout is already high. In 2017, it was only 30 percent at the beginning of the afternoon, now that percentage is already at 42 percent. This is likely due to voting by mail and working from home. In this election, 13.2 million people are eligible to vote. Let's hope as many people as possible make use of that voting right.
Counting time
At 9:00 PM tonight, NOS will present the first exit poll. Not all votes will have been counted by then, but the research agency Ipsos dares to make an estimate. They are at 45 polling stations today to survey voters and based on that, they make an estimate. In the latest polls from last night, VVD was in the lead, PVV in second place, and Sigrid Kaag with her D66 was making a comeback. After 9:00 PM, the real counting begins, and throughout the evening and night, we will receive the first forecasts.
