It was freezing in Portadown yesterday, and relations between the main Unionist parties were even colder than that, writes Frank McNally in Portadown.
In fact, relations were non-existent at most polling stations, because so were the UUP. If Trimble supporters had been rubbing shoulders with their rivals, the friction might have generated some heat. As it was, there was little relief from the biting wind, and even more biting Paisleyites.
Typical of the polling booths was Hart Memorial School, where DUP Councillor Alan Carson shared canvassing duties with the (anti-agreement) Independent Unionists. Typical of the voters was a man who announced jovially as he left that nobody could say he didn't vote for David Trimble: "I gave him a number eight!".
Strictly speaking, the DUP would not recommend even a number eight preference for Mr Trimble but Mr Carson took it in the right spirit, before returning to the subject of the missing UUP canvassers.
"This is a Unionist heartland, and they're afraid to show their faces. We think we're wasting our time standing here, because 98 per cent of people have their minds made up how they're voting. But it's gone down badly that they have no one". And if to prove he's not wasting his time, a local woman interrupted him to say, "I hope you're telling the newspaper the great work your party did in getting us a play park in Edgarstown". With a degree of self-effacement for which the DUP is not famous, Cllr Carson thanks her quietly and rests his case.
Over at Edenderry polling station, Independent Unionist leafleteer Deirdre Anderson is warming her hands on a mug of coffee provided by a woman from the neighbouring estate. The service is for anti-agreement canvassers only, the woman points out, maintaining a tough, no-coffee, no-transfers policy towards the pro-agreement parties. Asked jokingly if she would provide a mug for Mr Trimble, she replies "I'd put strychnine in it".
At Millington Primary School, a reported sighting of the UUP sparks some excitement. "There was those boys in the car a few minutes ago," confirmed the DUP man, "but they wouldn't get out". There has been no UUP canvassing here during the campaign either, he claims. "Trimble visits occasionally, at hours when there's nobody about".
Freezing temperatures and all, Mr Trimble's ears must have been warm, wherever they were. If there was any good news for him, it was the fact that it wasn't raining.
Although the effects of climate on voting are open to more interpretations than the collected statements of P O'Neill, there was near-consensus that the dry day had made older, lifelong UUP supporters more likely to vote.