IT may not be so much a landslide as a slow trickle. Council staff who want to protect their 9-5 existence are threatening to ruin live television coverage of the next general election results by refusing to count the votes on polling day.
Electoral returning officers in as many as one in four local authorities are considering abandoning the traditional Thursday night count.
They intend to follow the example of last July's Norwich North by-election and begin counting the votes on Friday instead.
The move has angered broadcasters and MPs who fear that the absence of a definitive live broadcast could turn one of the most potentially exciting electoral battles for decades into a damp squib.
Several major councils, including Newcastle upon Tyne, have already opted for a Friday count. Officials in Leeds, York, Gloucestershire and the London borough of Lewisham are among those considering it.
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North Lincolnshire council's chief executive has recently met with election staff to discuss the possibility of counting on Friday.
"No decision has been made on when we will count," a spokesman said. "Elections are a long day and a long night for staff, and there is a case that the counters will be fresher and do a better job after a night's sleep.
"Many councils have already moved to a Friday count for European and local elections and are now considering doing so for general elections." Some councils say the cost of hiring several dozen tellers cannot be justified at a time of cutbacks.
BBC bosses privately believe anything between 10% and 25% of councils could be ready to opt out of the traditional Thursday night poll.
The move also threatens to change for ever the character of Britain's elections. The live broadcast has been a feature of the political landscape since it was first introduced in 1950. Innovations in coverage such as the introduction of the swingometer, which made its national debut during the 1959 contest, have transformed the way in which voters engage with the event.
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Live coverage has also given viewers moments of political drama. In 1992 viewers watched Chris Patten shed tears of anger when the voters of Bath cheered his defeat at the hands of the Liberal Democrat candidate Don Foster.
In the 1997 election Stephen Twigg's unexpected victory for Labour over Michael Portillo in Enfield Southgate became a defining moment of the campaign.
Foster, now the Liberal Democrat culture spokesman, described the councils' actions as "deeply disappointing".
"The excitement of watching the results unfold through the night is one of the things that stimulates interest," he said. "We could be in for a very exciting result this time around, and there could even be a hung parliament. But dragging the results out across two days like this will only dilute interest."
Ben Page, the chief executive of Ipsos Mori, the polling organisation, said: "It is highly likely that the governance of Britain is going to change this time around. But if the results are allowed to drip out, people are not going to feel the momentum of what is happening."
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Peter Snow, the veteran broadcaster who took over responsibility for the BBC's swingometer in 1992, said it was vital that election night programmes had enough results so that forecasters could try to make an accurate prediction.
"I think for the theatre and drama of election night, the more results the better. The flow of results on the night is incredibly important. There is only so much you can do with exit polls because politicians in the studio just refuse to take them seriously and laugh at them."
David Dimbleby, who has anchored every BBC general election night broadcast since 1979, said: "I think it's a great pity if councils don't count on the night.
"With continuous live coverage you get the excitement of particular results and particular people. People still ask, were you up for the Portillo moment?"
ITN, which will be providing live coverage for ITV, said it hoped that a compromise could be reached and the majority of votes would be counted on the night.
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A spokesman said: "Our viewers would expect this important election to be resolved on the night, rather than the next day. From that point of view, we would hope that the majority of seats would declare on the night."
The Electoral Commission said: "Electoral returning officers have a statutory responsibility to decide when the count takes place and that decision is based on local conditions.
"It is equally valid to count on a Friday as it is on a Thursday, and discussions are continuing about when the counts will take place."
Additional reporting: Marion Sauvebois and Helen Brooks
Poll day quips
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2001 Peter Mandelson on his return to parliament just five months after he resigned from the cabinet over the Hinduja passport affair: "I'm a fighter, not a quitter."
2005 Reg Keys, whose soldier son Tom was killed by an Iraqi mob in 2003 and who stood as an independent against Tony Blair: "I hope in my heart that one day the prime minister will be able to say sorry to the families bereaved by this war."
1997 John Major, the defeated Conservative prime minister: "So right. Okay. We lost."
1997 Michael Portillo following his defeat at the hands of Labour's Stephen Twigg: "A truly terrible night for the Conservatives."
1997 Tony Blair, on winning a landslide election victory: "I will not let you down."
1966 Ted Heath, a defiant leader of the opposition, concedes defeat: "The Labour party has been fighting on the past. We have fought on the present and the future."
1959 Harold Macmillan on leading the Conservative party to a third successful election victory: "This election has shown that the class war is obsolete."