When the Opportunity Knox...

In a first for Cranleigh School, an Upper Sixth Form Politics student put himself up as a candidate in May’s local elections. Until about five years ago, the age at which you could vote and the age at which you could stand as a candidate for public office differed (18 for the former, 21 for the latter). But one of Blair’s final reforms as PM was to bring the two into line at age 18. This gave Alex Knox the idea to run as an Independent candidate in the Waverley Borough Council elections. Unlike for Parliament, where a £500 deposit is required, for local councils no such fee applies. Alex also worked out that if he ran in Cranleigh West, the local ward where the School is situated, he and many of his fellow year group would be registered to vote for him. So at the start of April the Knox for Cranleigh campaign started. With the main aim of engaging his fellow Sixth Formers in the democratic process, he set about getting himself nominated – needing 10 signatures from registered voters in the ward. This was relatively easy as all the East borders were eligible to sign his papers and, hey presto, Alex was an Independent candidate. Mike Mockford, Alex’s campaign manager, and he produced a double-sided A5 leaflet which they delivered around Cranleigh with six other Sixth Formers in the Easter holidays, explaining why he was running.

Polling day came and he managed to get about 50 of his year group to go down and vote for him, along with some members of Common Room! This was the day that democracy and young people came together in Cranleigh. When polls closed at 10.00pm, I was allowed to take Alex to Haslemere, where the vote counting would be happening all evening.  After what could only be described as a very long night the results in Cranleigh West were as follows:

Election date: 5th May 2011
Electorate: 3062
Ballot Papers Issued: 1705
Turnout: 55.7 %
     
Richard E Cole    Liberal Democrats    402          
Brian Ellis    Conservative Party    929    Elected      
Anne P Ellis    Conservative Party    975    Elected      
Alexander G Knox    Independent Group of Councillors    317          
Christopher Tew    Liberal Democrats    338      

So, although Alex came last he still managed to get 317 votes in what is one of the safest Conservative wards in the country. He and I are still wondering where those votes actually came from! Overall, I would like to congratulate Alex on this venture and say publically what great company he was in this whole venture - particularly at 5.00am on that Friday morning at Haslemere Leisure Centre!


FTH