BY THE time you read this, it will all be over bar the counting. Whether there will be any actual shouting remains to be seen. I suspect yes, though it may be behind closed doors.

I’ll be at the count in York today for the AV referendum and the local elections – I’m supporting a friend who is standing – and I’m really rather excited. Given how fiercely contested some of York’s wards have been this time – in Micklegate there has been a slender majority – the results are likely to produce drama quicker than you can say “recount”.

At this late stage (I’m writing this column at 2am on Thursday) it’s pointless to speculate how the new City of York council will shape up politically. What can be fairly safely predicted is that whoever gets in will do so on a turnout of less than 50 per cent in most cases, and well under that, if the figures for Guildhall (31 per cent) and Clifton (33.5 per cent) at the 2007 elections are anything to go by.

All I can say is, if people don’t vote, then they are not in any position to complain if they don’t like what they get.

Unfortunately, complain they will, because that’s what folk do best. We can moan for Britain; we just won’t turn out or take part ourselves.

We’re all quick to blame “the council” for things and to knock councillors – I have done my share of that – but frankly, if you can’t be bothered to take a stroll to the poll in the name of democracy then don’t start whinging afterwards.

Apathy is basically laziness dressed up as disillusionment; a dumbed-down drone of “Nothing I do will make any difference”. Actually, if you use your vote, it can and it does, but this will require one to get up off the sofa first.

Personally, I don’t see why completing the Census can be made compulsory, yet voting at elections isn’t. In some countries people risk death to cast their votes. The Suffragettes gave their lives to earn their modern sisters that right. For heaven’s sake, let’s use it. Men, that means you, too.

When my husband harrumphed that the candidates were “all the same anyway” and said that he might not even vote this time he sparked such a reaction from me that the (renewable) energy his comment generated would easily have powered his beloved flat-screen TV for a year.

Needless to say, he voted. Well, he better had, or I’m going to talk through Match Of The Day every Saturday night from now on.

To be fair, in his case it’s not apathy, but world-weary cynicism about the motives of political candidates; a feeling I know others share. You hear it spouted all the time on phone-ins and at bus stops and, as a journalist, I can be pretty cynical myself.

However, wearing my other hat, as someone who does a lot of work in the voluntary sector, I come into regular contact with council members and most of them work hard. It’s no picnic putting in those hours on top of jobs and family commitments and they get a lot of hassle and not much thanks.

That doesn’t make them saints, and maybe a few are in it for the ego-trip, but my perception is that, for the most part, people get into local politics because they care about where they live. And surely we all do that?

York is special, we know that. And it’s officially one of the happiest places to live, according to a survey by Rightmove, which ranks it top for character and personality (the city, not the people), second for safety and fourth for schools.

So let’s keep it that way by engaging in the process and working together with our newly-elected councillors to improve our city.

You and I might not agree with their viewpoints, but at least they are prepared to stand up and be counted.

Our job is to call them to account, and, if they don’t measure up, chuck ’em out in 2015 and elect people who will.

In the meantime, let’s give the new batch a break, eh? At least for a week or two. Assuming some of them are new. One can only hope.

Whoops, there I go already. It’s hard to break the habit of a lifetime...