12 Stories True

Woman registering to vote in her jammys

Woman registering to vote in her jammys

One of the great myths that’s perpetuated in the media – you hear this a lot on the radio – is the one that ‘both sides are excited about the huge turnout’ – or ‘both sides have been involved in encouraging people to register’.

This is simply not true.

One side have consistently shut down debate and are actively hoping for a low turn out. In fact, you may remember Margaret Curran’s prediction that the turnout would be ‘around 38%.

Here are twelve true stories from voter registration campaigns over the last few months…

 

1. A woman rushed through in her pyjamas to register at Glasgow City Council at the last minute from Renfrew.

 

2. First time voter, 16 years old, was so excited to get to vote so came to Glasgow City Council in a saltire with his mum.

 

3. In Easterhouse – 72 year old man, never voted in his life, registered for the first time.

 

4. In Ibrox – yes campaigners were standing outside a close registering someone and people started coming out of closes along the street and phoning friends to get them to come down to register.

 

5. A homeless man just before registration closed asked those standing outside the council to assist him in filling in the Declaration of a Local Connection form.

 

6. A Woman returned from holiday, her plane landing in Glasgow Airport at 10:30pm, she assumes she will not be able to register. She then looks at Twitter to see activists are standing outside Glasgow City Council with forms, so she comes straight from airport and makes it on time with tears of happiness in her eyes.

 

7. A non-registered voter called Yes Dundee to find out how get signed up, so Yes Dundee sent a car to get the whole family to the registration office for 10pm.

 

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First time voter arrives in his cape

8. A Yes campaigner canvassing in Aberdeen said: “I’m Yes but I’ve missed the six o’clock deadline”. The yes campaigners said “don’t worry, the deadline is midnight, here’s a form, fill it in now and I’ll drop it off”. The voter then runs and gets all her friends on the street to register as well.

 

9. 23 year old who said he’d not even bothered to register to vote in the 2010 and 2011 General and Scottish elections because none of the parties on the ballot paper had ever appealed to him registered.

 

10. A Lithuanian couple registered to vote after being informed by a No campaigner that there citizenship was in jeopardy from a yes vote and they might not be allowed to vote.

 

11. Yes campaigners decided rather than just standing at a stall on the street they would just go into bars and cafes instead, and registered 25 mostly young bar workers who didn’t even know that it was the final day to register.

 

12. A homeless man named JoJo who had never been on the voters roll but wanted to get registered turned up outside Glasgow City Council as the queue of people were building up outside to register. Yes campaigners gave him a dozen Declaration of Local Connection forms which he said he would circulate among his friends at the Hamish Allan Centre.

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  1. Reblogged this on charlesobrien08 and commented:
    Sir,it with a sense of shame that I read the letters page today.I find it a disgrace that people in Scotland have no faith in our own ability to run our country.Has Scotland been so put down that now so many people have no confidence in themselves to make decisions? People putting forward the it wont work argument or we cannae dae it,where is the money coming from? they don’t realise that as a country Scotland produces enough food to be able to export 25% of our produce,this is a rich country,and money comes from the sale of what we produce.When the totals of what we import on food are tallied with what we export we are net exporters by £4.billion a year at least.We still make other items for export and sell oil and electricity that is where money comes from.we export our knowledge and services,that is where the money comes from.One important point if we were a cost to Westminster they would have “gave” us our independence a long time ago,we are subsidising them.One person wrote about socialism and being united aye all very good,but for a 100 years the Labour party have tried to convince “the majority” on these islands to be more caring and sharing,its not happening,so why deny the 5.3 million Scots who want to be caring and sharing the chance to be.That is some of the answers,I don’t expect to be printed but it felt good to put them down.regards

  2. I think this might be appropriate comment,its a letter sent to the Record (shame)
    Sir,it with a sense of shame that I read the letters page today.I find it a disgrace that people in Scotland have no faith in our own ability to run our country.Has Scotland been so put down that now so many people have no confidence in themselves to make decisions? People putting forward the it wont work argument or we cannae dae it,where is the money coming from? they don’t realise that as a country Scotland produces enough food to be able to export 25% of our produce,this is a rich country,and money comes from the sale of what we produce.When the totals of what we import on food are tallied with what we export we are net exporters by £4.billion a year at least.We still make other items for export and sell oil and electricity that is where money comes from.we export our knowledge and services,that is where the money comes from.One important point if we were a cost to Westminster they would have “gave” us our independence a long time ago,we are subsidising them.One person wrote about socialism and being united aye all very good,but for a 100 years the Labour party have tried to convince “the majority” on these islands to be more caring and sharing,its not happening,so why deny the 5.3 million Scots who want to be caring and sharing the chance to be.That is some of the answers,I don’t expect to be printed but it felt good to put them down.regards

  3. Steve Bowers 74% win says:

    Davy Cameron must be pig sick, we now have The Big Society and it’s been done by a huge grassroots movement, Thank you Alex Salmond, you have changed our country for the better after all your years of trying, I may not vote for you but I respect what you have done.

  4. Craig Fraser says:

    I am a local Highland Councillor and I had my letter printed in the local paper as follows.

    REFERENDUM IS NOT ABOUT THE SNP penned September 4th 2014 in local paper.

    When the Scottish voters go to the polls on September the 18th it will come down to what sort of country the residents of Scotland wish to live in. An all-inclusive country irrespective of a person’s ability, age, wealth, health, creed or sexual orientation. Or alternatively one based on privilege and the ability to pay where the few benefit over the many as in the Westminster government which controls Scotland’s funding. The Independence referendum has not been and is not about Alex Salmond and the SNP. The SNP led Scottish Government has fulfilled one of the main SNP manifesto pledges of having a referendum on Scotland’s future.

    I sincerely hope that there is a YES vote on September 18. In addition I also hope that Scottish voters see through all the lies, deceptions and scaremongering by the unionists as their vision of a “better together” United Kingdom, whereas Scotland has an opportunity be an Independent nation controlling its own future without Westminster rule. We must never forget that Scotland is a wealthy nation financially and we will be able to afford to run our own affairs.

  5. Clootie says:

    “Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.”

    ~ Mahatma Gandhi

  6. Thomas Valentine says:

    Your mention of false statements being made to migrants by NO campaigners has happened around Falkirk. Most Lithuanians and Poles here are pretty clued up and understand whats going on so weren’t taken in at all. I wouldn’t say all the Poles were for YES, some had quite a thing for Magaret Thatcher. But it would seem quite a great majority are for YES. With the Lithuanians its just TAIP!!! It must be that they have moved around countries and have a better perspective. Scotland and rUK being two states instead of one just doesn’t seem that big a deal.

  7. Hugh Wallace says:

    Reblogged this on Are We Really Better Together? and commented:
    Here are twelve true stories from voter registration campaigns over the last few months…

  8. Coinneach mac Raibeart says:

    Story 13. A YES Stewartry first-time canvasser on attachment to YES Wiggie (Wigtownshire) discovers a house-full of people who want to vote YES but are not registered to do so. He fumbles around the inside the unfamiliar canvas pack and finds the unfamiliar forms. There are not enough of them, but he acquires more and at the end of the canvas returns to the house and personally ensures that every YES intender is registered. Later, he ditches the official canvas pack and replaces it with a canvassing rucksack (distinct from a leafleting rucksack) in which campaign material can be carried in industrial quantities.

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