Selfies, disabilities, cats, and dogs … voting throws up all sorts of questions and can sometimes feel confusing. There can be a lot of unclear and old-fashioned words and explanations and it’s easy to feel a bit overwhelmed.
To help make things a bit easier, watch this short video and then click on the headings below to find out more
When there’s an election, everyone who is registered to vote and aged 18 and over will be able to vote in their local area.
Depending on the election, you could be asked to vote for your local Councillor, your MP or in a referendum on a specific issue, such as whether your area should adopt a neighbourhood plan.
Local councillors make decisions on important issues that will affect you now, and in the future, such as:
- where we should focus our efforts locally to help tackle climate change,
- where and how new housing gets built,
- how we work to help ensure there’s enough affordable housing,
- what leisure facilities are provided and
- how rubbish collections work.
To elect local councillors, we use the First Past the Post system – on your ballot paper, you’ll see a list of candidates and you’ll be asked to mark ‘X’ next to your chosen candidate or candidates.
The candidate with the most votes becomes the representative for your local area.
Some areas have two or more people representing them, but the system works the same – the candidates with the most votes are the winners.
Remember to always read and follow the instructions on your ballot paper carefully.
MPs are elected to the House of Commons using a system called First Past the Post. You vote for one candidate in your constituency by marking ‘X’ next to their name.
There are 650 constituencies across the across the constituent countries (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland). Most candidates will be standing for a party. Simply, the candidate with the most votes in your constituency is elected and becomes your Member of Parliament.
The political party which has most MPs elected across the whole of the UK, wins the election and becomes the Government. They have what’s called a majority, meaning they have the largest number of MPs.
It’s important to remember that you don’t vote for the Prime Minister. Instead, members of each political party elect their own leader. If their party wins the majority, their leader becomes Prime Minister and that person chooses who takes other senior Government positions, such as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary.
Before you are able to cast your ballot in an election, you must be registered to vote at your current address – make sure you are by visiting the Register to Vote website.
Once you’ve registered to vote, you will only need to do so again if you have recently moved house or you have changed your name.
Before the day of election, known as polling day, you will receive a card known as a ‘poll card’. Everyone who is registered to vote in your household will receive their own poll card.
Your poll card tells you where and when you can vote.
Unless you have told us otherwise, it will be assumed that you want to vote in person at the polling station. The address for your local polling station can be found on the front page of your poll card.
Closer to election day, you will also be able to find out where your local polling station is and who you can vote for by entering your postcode on our website.
There are three ways to vote, just pick whichever suits you best and then follow the instructions:
1. You can vote in person by visiting a polling station – see our guides about what happens in a polling station on election day and on casting your vote in a polling station.
2. You can apply to vote post – see our page on voting by post.
3. You can apply to allow someone you trust to vote on your behalf, know as a proxy vote – https://see our guide on voting by proxy.
On election day, you’ll need to go to your polling station unless you have chosen to have a postal or proxy vote. It’s usually a public building like a nearby school or village hall, but polling stations have popped up in all kinds of places.
In the UK, elections are usually held on Thursdays and polling stations are always open from 7am until 10pm.
See our page on what happens on polling day for further details.
You can take your pet to polling stations. In fact, taking dogs to polling stations is so popular that the hashtag #DogsAtPollingStations has trended in recent elections.
No photos can be taken inside a polling station, but you can take photos outside the polling station. Just remember to be respectful of other voters!
If you wish to share that you have voted and would like to encourage others to do the same, you are welcome to post on social media about going to vote.
While it is ok to tell people how you have voted, it is illegal to share how another individual voted (under section 66 of the Representation of the People Act).
You may notice people hanging around outside polling stations, they are volunteers for political parties called tellers. You have no obligation to speak to tellers, but they may ask you for your poll number (the reference on your poll card with letters and numbers). This is because the tellers are trying to gauge how many people have voted and how many people they still need to encourage to go to the polls.
There’s a chance that you’ll be able to vote in different elections on the same day, so you may be given more than one ballot paper.
Take your time to read everything properly. There will be instructions on the ballot paper and on posters in the polling station.
Take your ballot paper into a polling booth. These are private, screened areas designed so that no one else can see how you vote. If it’s busy, you may have to wait for a free booth. Make sure you give people plenty of space, so everyone can cast their vote in secret.
Clearly mark your ballot paper with an X next to the candidate you would like to vote for.
Unless instructed otherwise, you must vote for only one candidate.
What happens if I make a mistake?
If you make a mistake on your ballot paper, don’t panic, it’s fine! As long as you have not put your ballot in the ballot box, staff can issue you with a replacement. Just explain to a member of staff what you have done, and they will be able to issue you with a new ballot.
What if I purposely spoil my ballot paper?
If you have purposely spoilt your ballot paper your vote won’t be counted. This is normally done if you write anything on the ballot aside from a clear voting intention in a box next to a candidate’s name.
What do I need to do once I’ve marked my ballot paper?
When you’ve filled in your ballot paper, fold it in half and put it into the ballot box for your polling station. These are large boxes which will be clearly labelled and obviously placed, but if you are not sure just check with a member of staff.
You should also not discuss your vote in the polling station with anyone else as it might influence or unnerve fellow voters. If you want to discuss candidates or voting choices, please do so outside the polling station.
IMPORTANT! Do not write anything to identify yourself in any way on the ballot paper as this will mean that your vote will be voided and wouldn’t be counted for the election – voting must be anonymous.
At the end of the polling day, the polling station staff take ballot box away to a central counting location where all the votes for the election will be counted.
Your vote will be kept safe and will always stay secret.
The ballot boxes arrive
Once polls close, staff will deliver the ballot boxes containing postal votes and the ballot boxes from the polling stations to the count venue.
Each ballot box will have been allocated a specific number and will be checked in on arrival.
Stage one: counting/verifying the ballot papers
Once all the boxes have been checked, our count staff can begin counting the ballot papers.
This involves emptying each ballot box onto a table and then comparing the number of ballot papers that were in that box against the number recorded at the polling station and the number recorded by our postal vote team.
Stage two: sorting the ballot papers
The ballot papers from different ballot boxes for each ward are mixed to preserve the secrecy of the vote. Our count teams will then sort the ballot papers for that area by candidate.
Ballot papers not marked with an ‘X’ in the box next to a candidate are passed to the Returning Officer or a Deputy to check – as long the voter’s intention is clear, their vote can be accepted as valid and be counted.
If it is not possible to work out the voter’s intention, their ballot paper is rejected.
Stage three: counting the votes!
After the sorting is complete, the real excitement begins as our count teams count the number of votes cast for each candidate!
Once all the votes and have been counted and checked against the total number of ballot papers from the first stage of the count, the Returning Officer will share the provisional result with candidates and their agents.
Declaring the result
If the candidates and agents are satisfied that there is a clear decision, it’s then time to announce the winner.
The Returning Officer will declare the result. The candidate(s) with the most votes will be elected as new councillor(s) or MP.