Dogs at polling stations

Dogs at polling stations or #dogsatpollingstations is a popular hashtag and Internet meme on social media during an election in the UK and other countries such as Australia.[1] Typically, the dogs are photographed waiting for their owners outside the polling station and the pictures then posted on services such as Instagram or Twitter.[2][3]

Pip at a polling station for the EU referendum in 2016

The hashtag became popular in the UK general elections of 2015 and 2017.[4]

The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held in December and thus many of the photographs had a seasonal theme such as showing the dog wearing a Santa hat. Politicians who participated included Boris Johnson, with his dog Dilyn, and Sadiq Khan with his labrador, Luna.[5] Ed Davey posted a picture of his family's guinea pig, Carrot, as they do not have a dog. Other animals, such as horses, also made appearances.[6][7]

Semiotic analysis of the photographs may indicate the political alignment or voting preference of the dogs' owners.[1]

References
  1. Helen Caple (2019), "Lucy says today she is a Labordoodle": how the dogs-of-Instagram reveal voter preferences", Social Semiotics, 29 (4): 427–447, doi:10.1080/10350330.2018.1443582
  2. Dogs at polling stations: Pooches at the polls, BBC, 12 December 2019
  3. Matt Fidler (12 December 2019), "Taking the lead: dogs at polling stations – in pictures", Guardian
  4. Tony Allen (23 August 2017), "10 years of hashtags that changed Twitter", The Independent
  5. Michael Hogan (12 December 2019), "Forget Boris Johnson v Jeremy Corbyn… the real political rivalry is between Dilyn the dog and El Gato the cat", The Telegraph
  6. Marc Betts (12 December 2019), "Social media, dogs and even a guinea pig: The trend of pets at polling stations", The New European
  7. Faye Brown (12 December 2019), "Dogs at polling stations upstaged by 'horses with causes'", The Metro
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