Respondents to an online TIME poll have voted for Scotland to become an independent nation.
A total of 16,418 reader votes were tallied, of which 9,436 (57.5%) were for Scotland’s secession from the U.K. and 6,982 (42.5%) were for the maintenance of the 307-year-old union.
Some 4.2 million Scottish residents are eligible to vote in the real referendum on Thursday, polls for which open at 7 a.m. and close at 10 p.m. local time. Results from the 32 local authority areas are expected to trickle in during the wee hours of Friday. A nation, or possibly two, is on tenterhooks.
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Write to Charlie Campbell at charlie.campbell@time.com