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| Millions in Britain Vote on Whether to Remain in E.U., or Leave | Millions in Britain Vote on Whether to Remain in E.U., or Leave |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| LONDON — Millions of Britons flocked to the polls on Thursday to decide whether their country should remain in the European Union, after a fierce debate over trade, immigration and sovereignty that is unlikely to end no matter the outcome. | LONDON — Millions of Britons flocked to the polls on Thursday to decide whether their country should remain in the European Union, after a fierce debate over trade, immigration and sovereignty that is unlikely to end no matter the outcome. |
| The financial markets, and officials from Washington to Brussels to Frankfurt, were monitoring the outcome cautiously. The pound surged against the dollar over the past week as traders anticipated that voters would choose the status quo, and British bookmakers have done a brisk business taking bets. | |
| Voting started at 7 a.m. and ended at 10 p.m., though some particularly crowded poll sites stayed open longer to accommodate voters who had gotten in line to cast their ballots. Counting began in 382 locations, with the results collated in 12 regional centers. The outcome will be announced in Manchester, England, around breakfast time on Friday, though the BBC and other news organizations could call the outcome earlier if one side has clearly prevailed. | |
| Minutes after voting ended, the polling organization YouGov released a final day-of-election poll showing the Remain camp ahead, 52 percent to 48 percent. (It was not an exit poll, which would have involved interviews with voters outside polling places, but instead involved recontacting a sample of voters who had been contacted a day earlier.) | |
| Two other last-minute opinion surveys also gave the Remain camp an edge, but given the failure of most British pollsters to foresee the Conservative Party’s victory in last year’s general elections, many analysts were putting little trust in surveys. “Neither a comfortable Remain victory nor a comfortable Leave victory can be ruled out,” Stephen Fisher, an elections expert who teaches at Oxford, wrote on Thursday morning, after noting that polling averages gave Remain a very slight lead. | |
| About half of voters were thought to have walked to the polls, though many others drove and a few rode horses. Strong rains in parts of the capital and southeast England complicated voting; floods forced the borough of Kingston upon Thames in southwest London to move two polling sites. By the Thursday evening rush, rains had caused delays on several subway lines and brought foot traffic at Waterloo, the capital’s busiest train station, to a standstill. Many Britons posted photos of themselves accompanied by their dogs and cats, prompting internet memes. | |
| Until the polls close, news organizations are prohibited from reporting accounts of how people voted, but in interviews, Britons expressed their concerns and anxieties in more general terms. | Until the polls close, news organizations are prohibited from reporting accounts of how people voted, but in interviews, Britons expressed their concerns and anxieties in more general terms. |
| In the deprived town of Oldham, near Manchester, a traditional stronghold of the Labour Party, Lisa Kirk, 43, said she and her family had been swayed by the U.K. Independence Party, which opposes Britain’s membership in the European Union, and expressed disenchantment with British leaders. “They’re just letting all the foreigners in, and there is nothing left in the system for us,” she said. | In the deprived town of Oldham, near Manchester, a traditional stronghold of the Labour Party, Lisa Kirk, 43, said she and her family had been swayed by the U.K. Independence Party, which opposes Britain’s membership in the European Union, and expressed disenchantment with British leaders. “They’re just letting all the foreigners in, and there is nothing left in the system for us,” she said. |
| In the 18th-century spa town of Royal Tunbridge Wells, in the picturesque Kent countryside, Michael Selway, 54, expressed worry about the future of European integration. “This project was set up by people who had fantastic intentions — no more war — and now it might all come to a crashing end,” he said. | In the 18th-century spa town of Royal Tunbridge Wells, in the picturesque Kent countryside, Michael Selway, 54, expressed worry about the future of European integration. “This project was set up by people who had fantastic intentions — no more war — and now it might all come to a crashing end,” he said. |
| Older voters are seen as being particularly disenchanted with the European Union, and younger voters more attracted to the possibility of studying and working on the Continent. But there were many exceptions. | Older voters are seen as being particularly disenchanted with the European Union, and younger voters more attracted to the possibility of studying and working on the Continent. But there were many exceptions. |
| Helen Lickerman, 67, said there was a general tendency to move away from European integration. “Never mind the ins and outs of the economy,” she said at an interview at St. Giles Cripplegate Church in the Barbican, a residential and arts complex in the City of London, the capital’s financial district. “There’s a general feeling of being part of a community, and the history, the past wars, is something we don’t want anymore.” | Helen Lickerman, 67, said there was a general tendency to move away from European integration. “Never mind the ins and outs of the economy,” she said at an interview at St. Giles Cripplegate Church in the Barbican, a residential and arts complex in the City of London, the capital’s financial district. “There’s a general feeling of being part of a community, and the history, the past wars, is something we don’t want anymore.” |
| Near Paddington Station just north of Hyde Park, Yamini Mathur, a 41-year-old Londoner, said that voters had been more confused than enlightened by the blizzard of claims and counterclaims made during a series of debates. “We do not have all the answers, we do not have all the information, but I guess we will just have to go with all the information we have,” she said. | Near Paddington Station just north of Hyde Park, Yamini Mathur, a 41-year-old Londoner, said that voters had been more confused than enlightened by the blizzard of claims and counterclaims made during a series of debates. “We do not have all the answers, we do not have all the information, but I guess we will just have to go with all the information we have,” she said. |
| The two officially designated campaigns — Vote Leave and Stronger In — continued to fire away on Twitter, in messages that reflected the sharply negative turn the debate has taken in a country where civility and decorum have been distinctive characteristics of the political culture. | The two officially designated campaigns — Vote Leave and Stronger In — continued to fire away on Twitter, in messages that reflected the sharply negative turn the debate has taken in a country where civility and decorum have been distinctive characteristics of the political culture. |
| There was a last-minute controversy as Stronger In seized on an email that Vote Leave sent to supporters, which said, “There is a very real chance that voters in London and Scotland will vote to keep us in the E.U. today despite the heartlands of the country voting to leave.” The Stronger In campaign urged its supporters: “Don’t let them divide our country. Vote Remain.” | There was a last-minute controversy as Stronger In seized on an email that Vote Leave sent to supporters, which said, “There is a very real chance that voters in London and Scotland will vote to keep us in the E.U. today despite the heartlands of the country voting to leave.” The Stronger In campaign urged its supporters: “Don’t let them divide our country. Vote Remain.” |
| Vote Leave told its followers on Twitter: “Today’s referendum is about democracy. If you cherish it and it matters to you at all, then please #VoteLeave and #TakeBackControl.” The campaign has relentlessly attacked the European Union as an unaccountable and faceless bureaucracy that is subsidized by Britain and offers little more than onerous directives in return, while forcing high levels of migrants onto Britain through its insistence on the free movement of labor, capital, goods and services. | Vote Leave told its followers on Twitter: “Today’s referendum is about democracy. If you cherish it and it matters to you at all, then please #VoteLeave and #TakeBackControl.” The campaign has relentlessly attacked the European Union as an unaccountable and faceless bureaucracy that is subsidized by Britain and offers little more than onerous directives in return, while forcing high levels of migrants onto Britain through its insistence on the free movement of labor, capital, goods and services. |
| The Stronger In campaign has at times struggled to make a positive case for the 28-nation bloc, instead focusing on the economic hit that Britain — the bloc’s second-largest economy, after Germany — would sustain if it lost access to a common market of more than 500 million people. Even enthusiasts acknowledge that the European Union, with its cumbersome governance, is hard to love, though they say it has helped to unite a Continent that nearly destroyed itself in two world wars. | The Stronger In campaign has at times struggled to make a positive case for the 28-nation bloc, instead focusing on the economic hit that Britain — the bloc’s second-largest economy, after Germany — would sustain if it lost access to a common market of more than 500 million people. Even enthusiasts acknowledge that the European Union, with its cumbersome governance, is hard to love, though they say it has helped to unite a Continent that nearly destroyed itself in two world wars. |
| With the stumping over, politicians were left with little to do but vote. Three leaders of the Remain campaign — Prime Minister David Cameron, whose Conservative Party is bitterly divided over the European Union, and the leader of the opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, and Mayor Sadiq Khan of London — all voted in the capital. | With the stumping over, politicians were left with little to do but vote. Three leaders of the Remain campaign — Prime Minister David Cameron, whose Conservative Party is bitterly divided over the European Union, and the leader of the opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, and Mayor Sadiq Khan of London — all voted in the capital. |
| So did Boris Johnson, the former London mayor who has arguably been the most prominent face of the Leave campaign, and Michael Gove, the justice secretary. Nigel Farage, the leader of the U.K. Independence Party, cast his ballot in Kent, in southeast England. | So did Boris Johnson, the former London mayor who has arguably been the most prominent face of the Leave campaign, and Michael Gove, the justice secretary. Nigel Farage, the leader of the U.K. Independence Party, cast his ballot in Kent, in southeast England. |
| It was only the third nationwide referendum in British history. In the first, in 1975, Britons affirmed their membership in the European Economic Community, a forerunner to the European Union, which they joined in 1973. In the second, in 2011, voters rejected a change to the system by which members of Parliament are elected. | It was only the third nationwide referendum in British history. In the first, in 1975, Britons affirmed their membership in the European Economic Community, a forerunner to the European Union, which they joined in 1973. In the second, in 2011, voters rejected a change to the system by which members of Parliament are elected. |
| In the City, banks including Barclays and JPMorgan Chase had employees bring sleeping bags or book hotel rooms as they settled in for a long night, with the prospect of tremendous market volatility on Friday if Britain votes to leave. | In the City, banks including Barclays and JPMorgan Chase had employees bring sleeping bags or book hotel rooms as they settled in for a long night, with the prospect of tremendous market volatility on Friday if Britain votes to leave. |
| Britain’s fractious press has been sharply divided over the referendum, and analysts have complained that the campaigning has been characterized by more heat than light. “The Remainers wildly exaggerated the risks involved in leaving, while the Brexiteers brazenly misrepresented the cost and impact of E.U. membership and its relationship to other issues such as immigration,” Charlie Beckett, a former journalist who runs a research center at the London School of Economics, wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. | Britain’s fractious press has been sharply divided over the referendum, and analysts have complained that the campaigning has been characterized by more heat than light. “The Remainers wildly exaggerated the risks involved in leaving, while the Brexiteers brazenly misrepresented the cost and impact of E.U. membership and its relationship to other issues such as immigration,” Charlie Beckett, a former journalist who runs a research center at the London School of Economics, wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. |