Talk:Polling station

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This article was selected as the article for improvement on 16 September 2024 for a period of one week.

Polling station vs. Polling place

It seems a bit odd to have "polling station" as the article title while the first sentence explains that the better part of the English speaking world commonly calls it a"polling place." I would propose a name change. --Electiontechnology (talk) 04:54, 16 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with this. Actually, the lead is slightly misleading: while "polling station" is the most common term in the UK as a whole, in Scotland the usual phrase is "polling place". 81.159.58.45 (talk) 23:41, 5 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think it is not quite that simple. I vote in Edinburgh, at a "polling place" which has two "polling stations". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.41.247.124 (talk) 22:32, 6 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

This is an old discussion, but for what it's worth, polling station has substantially more hits on google than polling place has. I would question what the source is for the idea that most of the English speaking world uses polling place.

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

No consensus to move. Vegaswikian (talk) 18:37, 22 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Polling place → Polling station — Unless this is an WP:ENGVAR issue, polling station would seem to be the far more common terminology. Although its hardly an ideal system of measuring usage, there are 1,900,000 google hits for "polling station" versus 897,000 for "polling place". 84.92.117.93 (talk) 18:18, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Comment: I've only ever used "polling station" (hadn't heard of "polling place" before yesterday) but looking at the gallery (I knew they'd be useful eventually!) it looks like the UK examples are all "polling station" (which I'd expect) and the (one) US example uses "polling place". I agree it could be a WP:ENGVAR issue - any US/non-UK editors like to chime in? Is "polling place" widely used in the US? Cheers, TFOWR^{This flag once was red} 10:25, 9 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- One example for polling places in the US. Vegaswikian (talk) 18:59, 9 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  - Is "polling place" the terminology used throughout the United States, or is it a regional thing? 84.92.117.93 (talk) 21:05, 9 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    - It is used in NYC] along with polling site, Chicago and LA County. Those where the next three I tried. So based on this small sample, I'd say it is in common use in the US. Vegaswikian (talk) 22:51, 9 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Comment. Technically, in UK elections, a polling place and a polling station are different things. (If there are a large number of voters registered to vote at one polling place, there will be more than one polling station in the same place, each set up to deal with a manageable number of electors). Indeed if certain councils had done this more readily last week, there would not have been voters left outside at 22:00.

However, regarding the article, in its present state it is fairly worthless, on the one hand it deals mostly with the UK situation, on the other hand there are a few attempts to take a wider view but these are generalities rather than any information comparing one country with another. My preferred solution would be for the article to be merged into another article somewhere. Sussexonian (talk) 19:10, 11 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Comment For the record, I live in Virginia and I can't recall ever hearing "polling station." "Polling place" is definitely more common, I'd presume throughout the U.S. (I don't really have an opinion on moving the article.) Propaniac (talk) 14:48, 18 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose: apparently, the UK has both ;-) Keep the current title, and expand to explain that "polling places" may contain "polling stations". Note that there is currently a Template:Globalize tag. TFOWR^propaganda 14:54, 18 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Updates Coming to the Page

I am going to upload some additional information. I am working with Wikimedia education program. Please leave comments if necessary.RWarren51 (talk) 22:59, 16 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Really enjoyed reading your entry. Wasn't sure if this was intentional or unintentional, but the first sentence in the first full paragraph is really long. SIde effeX08 (talk) 22:40, 24 April 2013 (UTC)SIde effex08[reply]

I agree it is a very long sentence. Since I updated this article the first sentence actually belongs to the user that setup the article. I will take a look at it and see if I can condense. I was just hesitant to overwrite someone else's work.RWarren51 (talk) 16:55, 25 April 2013 (UTC)RWarren51RWarren51 (talk) 16:55, 25 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I found the sections added interesting. After looking through some previous comments, I wonder if it might be appropriate at some point to have sections that clarify if they are talking about the US or UK? Japayseur (talk) 03:52, 29 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]