I thought the days of Downing Street trying to fix elections so the DUP didn't prosper had gone. But then I read that Gordon Brown's Governance Green Paper is canvassing the idea of voting on Sundays to boost turnout. Surely, I thought, this will discriminate against all those DUP sabbatarians?
I've just taken a look at the Green Paper. It does indeed talk about weekend voting in general and local elections. There's no suggestion that devolved elections will be changed. The Green Paper promises that "the consultation will take into account the needs of religious groups, to ensure that those with religious objections to voting on a Saturday or Sunday have an opportunity to vote in a way that is consistent with their beliefs."
I'm not quite sure what this means - will all the sabbatarians have postal votes? And what will sabbatarian candidates and agents do - could we be robbed of all that hymn singing which normally accompanies a victory speech?
The Electoral Office has indicated it will go for overnight counting at future General elections to put us in the same boat as the rest of the UK. But what if some of their counting staff refuse to clock on until midnight?
"I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me... power"? Well that might be far from true in US politics, but according to the latest Electoral Commission figures on the March assembly election campaign the sentiment may hold true closer to home. The figures show that of the four biggest parties, the one who spent the most emerged with the least seats.
The SDLP spent nearly £370,000 during the campaign, after which they held on to only 16 seats. (That includes more than £120,000 on advertising which apparently covered some pretty expensive billboards and Sunday newspaper adverts). The Ulster Unionists spent more than £260,000 for their 18 seats. The DUP spent just over £250,000 for their 36 seats, whilst Sinn Fein spent nearly £220,000 for their 28 seats.
The Electoral Commission has fined the Ulster Unionists £500 for making a late return on their campaign spending. It has also fined the Workers Party and the Socialist Environmental Alliance £500 each for failing to submit a return.
The Commission will now start going through the figures submitted by the parties with its fine tooth comb to try to establish that everything which should have been declared has been declared.
I've tried to boil the figures down into a value for money chart, revealing who took a seat for the least expenditure. So here goes with the figure representing how much the election cost per seat won.
1. Kieran Deeney £5,985
2. DUP £6,984
3. Sinn Fein £7,824
4. PUP £12,375
5. Alliance £14,061
6. UUP £14,556
7. SDLP £22,922
8. Green £98,432
I'm 
