ON the day of the 2008 Senatorial election I’d been a fully paid journalist for just a few days.
I had arrived home in Jersey fresh-faced, enthusiastic and ready to begin a career that I’d spent years preparing for.
The Jersey Evening Post office was a hive of activity. There were spread sheets being prepared for the big day, a regular election page to fill in each edition, giant plans, lists and contacts pinned up on walls and something called The Fly kept being mentioned…
‘You’ll be in St Saviour for the count,’ the news editor told me a few days before election night.
I was excited. It’s a big parish after all and I expected lots of people (read potential new contacts), atmosphere, tension and excitement. I think I even wore a suit.
Instead, however, as I sat outside as the room was sealed off for the count I found myself next to 103 presenter Peter Mac, who spent the next four hours telling me all about some bloke who was afraid of buttons and the psychology behind it.
There was just one other person hanging around and an honorary policewoman on the door.
Fast forward almost a decade and while the venue may well change, on 16 May I will once again be setting up camp in a parish hall somewhere awaiting the election results for the JEP.
I certainly won’t be wearing a suit (I stuck out like a sore thumb in 2008), although I am hoping that the warmer May weather and lighter evenings will mean I’ll need fewer layers than the winter elections of years gone by.
I’ll have more snacks this time, plus a good book and Twitter to entertain me.
And with Peter Mac now Deputy McLinton it’s unlikely he will have hours to spare to regale me with anecdotes and tales to help the time pass.
Although it will this year be a general election with all States Members elected on the one night, the system and processes will be broadly the same, as will the pattern of declarations that will then play out as the evening progresses, culminating in a final announcement from St Helier to bring what can be a dramatic close to proceedings.
States Members and aspiring politicians will be camped out in pubs, restaurants, hotels and homes across the Island awaiting the results, and us journalists will make it our duty to know their locations and mission to secure a precious two minutes with the poll-toppers and big surprises of the night.
And the States Greffe will be beavering away at their headquarters for the night, ensuring that the vote.je website is up-to-date with all results and information.
A lot can happen in a decade, and many things have changed since I sat uncomfortably in that suit studying the faces of St Saviour’s Constables through the ages to a different kind of Peter Mac soundtrack than most will be used to.
But many aspects remain the same.
And in the years since my first election night as a reporter I have written in these pages of the importance of using your vote on many an occasion.
And it’s time to do it again, with registration open until 9 April.
Every election has a feeling to it, an atmosphere, or an aura, if you were.
It is too early to tell exactly what that will be this year, although it is likely to be a variation on previous years, which always include obligatory – for Jersey anyway – doses of cynicism and apathy.
But in 2018 there is also an optimism that positive change can be on the horizon if as an Island we are proactive.
There’s a growing recognition in our community that individuals really can make a difference, you only have to look at recent campaigns about plastic, food waste, and skateparks to see that.
And there is an understanding that we need a more diverse mix of politicians in the States Assembly, but to achieve that people do need to put themselves out there.
So as the end nears for the Class of 2014, which insiders say has become one of the most difficult Assemblies to work within (the word toxic has even been used), it would be easy to criticise and lose faith.
The opposite is harder but far more exciting and productive. And who knows? It may even be fun if we all try to capture some of that enthusiasm I first felt as I arrived – extra early, of course – at St Saviour’s Parish Hall ten years ago.
