Election day: ‘So, you just hand over the card and then you can vote?’ ‘Sweetie, I really have no idea either’

In Rotterdam alone, hundreds of volunteers are ready on Wednesday, to help thousands of voters at 331 polling stations. The morning shift at polling station 668 in the RSC/RVSV society in Kralingen is enthusiastic.

The election day starts early. Volunteer Mohammed began setting up at 4 o’clock. The traces of the party the night before have all been cleared away – apart from a glass with two last sips of beer and the ever-sticky floor.

“They took it a bit easier and tidied up in advance”, says Michel van Wijk, the building manager at RSC/RVSV who himself has long since outgrown his student years. He thinks it’s great that the society has been a polling station since the pandemic years. “Back then extra locations were needed because the care homes dropped out. This is an ideal place, and it’s always busy here at elections. Members and former members like to come, and local people like to pop in.”

Night club Bikini is in the hands of a different kind of members this Wednesday: the members of the polling station, under the leadership of Jillian Benders. His team has been on site since 6.30. The voting booths were already up then, thanks to Mohammed. It’s their job to set the rest up.

Jillian checks that the ballot boxes are truly empty at opening. The posters are put up: the enlarged candidate list in the corridor, the thank-you-for-voting poster by the exit. Tea and coffee are made behind the bar. Michel looks around the building for a chair with armrests – because that is required by the rules, says Jillian. “There must be at least one chair with armrests for people who have difficulty walking, for if they want to watch the voting process or the counting.” Mohammed finds it a bit dark inside and fetches a lamp with a small fluorescent tube from home. After the division of tasks (“We rotate everyone, except the role of chair”) and a discussion about snacks (“Let’s start with the kruidnoten“), polling station 668 is ready.

Ready? Time to vote!

At sunrise, at 7.28, the first voters arrive. So they still have to wait two minutes. Immediately four young men are waiting, three in white trainers and one in suede pointed shoes. Three have their hair slicked back. When asked why they are so early, they answer in unison: “we still have to get to the office!” Job has just graduated in Business Administration and is heading to Amsterdam for his internship at KLM. “It’s the nearest station, and I was a member and still like to come.” He is third in line.

A local resident in a tailored brown pinstripe suit with a pram says: “We live almost next door, so this location is the easiest. And it’s certainly nice to be able to look inside.” Jolanda, in her white coat with a fur collar and leopard-print bag, has lived around the corner for thirty years. She laughs at the slightly sticky floor. “That was to be expected, because they can party here, you know. Fortunately the nuisance has decreased in recent years. Since it’s possible, I always vote here. So convenient being so close.”

RSC/RVSV president Filip Stijnis proudly says by phone that this is the busiest polling station in Kralingen. He arrives at the society a little later. “And on into the late hours, if needed. We do that often around here, but for tonight I signed up as a ballot counter.” That it would be busy was immediately noticeable to Jillian. “At some stations there are four members, here we need two more – and I saw a second ballot box. Then I knew for sure.”

Quieter in Langeveld

Alongside the polling station at RSC/RVSV there are 330 other polling stations in the city for this election. At the polling station in the Langeveld building on the Woudestein campus the day starts more quietly. “Voters are trickling in”, says one of the polling station members from behind the desk. “We think many students will vote a bit later. We do see people coming from another municipality who want to vote here – that is only possible if you applied for it in advance. We’ve already seen examples of that.”

At that moment an emeritus professor passes by who has just voted. To the woman at the exit he says: “How smoothly organised this is. What a wonderful country we live in, that we can do this.” Two students are in the queue that forms. “So, you just hand over the card and then you can vote?” “Sweetie, I really have no idea either.”