You must be on the electoral register in order to vote. Voter registration for this year’s local elections closed on 17 April.
Everyone registered to vote should have received a poll card which says where their polling station is located. Electors who vote in person can only cast their ballots at the polling station specified on this card.
The location of Exeter’s 55 polling stations, which will be open from 7am to 10pm on 4 May, can be found by postcode search on the city council website. Information on candidates can be found below.
Any voter who arrives at their polling station before 10pm and is in a queue waiting to vote at 10pm will be able to vote.
On entering the polling station you (or your proxy) can show your poll card to the staff, or tell them your name and address instead.
You do not need a poll card to vote, provided you are on the electoral register. However you now need to produce an accepted form of photo ID to vote in person.
UK passports, driving licenses, blue badges and some concessionary travel passes qualify, as do voter authority certificates.
You will then receive a ballot paper on which you can cast your vote by marking a cross next to the candidate you want to support in one of the available polling booths, before folding your ballot paper and placing it in a ballot box.
Proxy voters – registered voters who have been appointed to vote on behalf of another elector – must also vote at the specified polling station unless they have instead made arrangements to vote by post.
They must also produce an accepted form of photo ID to verify their identity, but do not need to verify the identity of the elector(s) on whose behalf they are voting.
The deadline for ordinary proxy vote registrations has also passed, but you may be able to apply to vote by emergency proxy due to disability or because of employment circumstances, in which case your application to do so must be submitted by 5pm on polling day.
Applications for replacement spoilt or lost postal votes can also be submitted until 5pm on polling day.
Postal voters can choose between returning their vote by post, in which case it must arrive by 10pm on polling day, or delivering it by hand either to the civic centre on Paris Street or to any polling station in their electoral ward before 10pm on polling day.
When all Exeter’s polling stations have closed, the city’s ballot boxes will be taken to the Riverside Leisure Centre so ballot papers can be verified and votes counted.
