WITH under two months until the probable big day, election fever is hotting up. The major political leaders are taking extra care to present a squeaky clean image. David Cameron's been out running and it's at least a week since Gordon Brown had anyone in a headlock.

To be honest, I'm a bit of a sucker for election night. Since they stopped showing those red triangle films it's one of the few good reasons to stay up late and watch the telly.

This is the night when the mighty are fallen, when reputations crash and burn, and Peter Snow's swingometer beheads a passing producer. While the last couple of elections have, admittedly, been a little dull – who could forget 2005 when the camera panned back to David Dimbleby only to find him asleep on Ann Widdecombe? – the 2010 edition promises plenty of excitement. Commentators are predicting a hung Parliament, although personally I think it's a little harsh stringing up MPs for the expenses scandal.

The central core around which the entertainment revolves is the incoming results ticker-taping across the bottom of the screen. It's a bit like Final Score except where the football version might flash-up the full-time result in East Fife v Stenhousemuir, the election night scroller will report that the Liberal Democrat candidate for Stepney and Bow is currently being talked down from the roof of the town hall.

The fun revolves around the rush of results between 2am and 4am that begins to give a clear hint as to who will be oppressing us for the next five years. This relies on the counts being carried out immediately after the polls have closed. Indeed, some constituencies enter into an unofficial race to be the first to provide a result, generally won by Sunderland South, who bring in the cream of local bingo players to check the ballot papers.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council, however, has indicated that it is to break with the tradition. In an act of electoral joylessness not witnessed since someone nicked the pencil off the string at Baddeley Green polling station in 1951, the authority has indicated that it won't start adding up votes until the following day.

Quite why this is I'm unsure. In my experience, the only constituencies not to declare on the night have been those in Northern Ireland, for understandable reasons, and the Scottish Highlands, where many polling stations are, like some MPs, remote and inaccessible.

The council states that its count is likely to start at 9.30am with the result ready by 2pm. By then, of course, it'll all be over. The results of the Stoke-on-Trent seats will be nought but an adjunct, an afterthought, an irrelevance.

In terms of missing the big moment, it's the election night equivalent of Sky Plus-ing the moon landings.

I'm not sure whether the authority fears difficulty in finding counters for the night but those who trawl through the ballot slips are paid for their trouble. And if there's a shortage, the answer is simple – use prisoners.

I mean, did Emmeline Pankhurst chain herself to those railings so someone could have a lie-in? Did her mate chuck herself under the King's horse so thousands of women's votes could go uncounted in a backroom at Glebe Street?

Democracy doesn't just happen in the hours of daylight. We all have to stay up late sometimes. If it carries on refusing to come out at night maybe Stoke-on-Trent City Council should go the whole hog and put a chicken on its crest.