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Two things I find odd about elections are how quickly the UK counts compared with other countries, and how short our queues are at polling stations. Even in a general election, where 4 countries are voting, we usually know who forms the next government by the end of the next day, and no one ends up queuing for 5 hours to vote (and we supposedly love queuing). If the PM's party loses, they go to the Palace to resign more or less immediately.
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in reply to Paul

blaue_Fledermaus
blaue_Fledermaus
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Here in Brazil even with around 150 million voters, with electronic voting we have the results in 2-3 hours after polls close.
in reply to Paul

Robin Adams
Robin Adams
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In America, originally the long "lame duck" period was to give the new President time to move to Washington DC. Leaving home, packing up all your things and travelling across the country was a major expedition in the 18th and 19th centuries (as Oregon Trail players know).

It's stayed mainly because of how difficult it is to amend the Constitution. It was shortened from 4 months to 2 with the 20th Amendment in 1933 (before then the President took office on March 4), before the Interstate highways were a thing, let alone air travel.

America also doesn't do the Shadow Cabinet thing. The new President needs time to put his cabinet together, and they all need time to quit their current jobs. Having a PM and Ministers who are all simultaneously MPs speeds things up a lot, because they're all already there in Westminster.

in reply to Robin Adams

Elena ``of Valhalla''
Elena ``of Valhalla''
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@Robin Adams @Paul and to be fair the shadow cabinet thing only works because of first past the post and the fact that the new PM can form the government without having to worry about the nuances of the results of an election where more parts of society get to be represented.

But not having to queue for hours, and the results be officially known, or at least 99% known¹ in a day or so look like the bare minimum for a working democracy

¹ here in Italy sometimes there are areas where recounts are needed, but they only influence maybe one or two MPs, not the main results of the election

@Paul @Robin Adams
in reply to Paul

penguin42
penguin42
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I guess the polling station thing is helped by us only normally having one or two polls at a given election; the US chooses loads of random stuff at the same time. The vast amount of high end technology [i.e. a pencil] in our voting booths must also help.

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