Exeter’s electors go to the polls in less than two weeks, on Thursday 2 May, to elect thirteen people to represent them on the city council, one in each electoral ward.
They will also be able to cast a vote in the 2024 Devon & Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner election.
You must be on the electoral register in order to vote. Voter registration for this year’s local elections closed on Tuesday.
Everyone registered to vote should by now 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.
Postal voting ballots are also now being sent out to the 15,000 Exeter voters who are registered to vote this way this year.
The location of Exeter’s 55 polling stations, which will be open from 7am to 10pm on 2 May, can be found by postcode search on the city council website.
You can find out more about the 61 candidates who are standing in the city council elections and the three candidates who are standing for election as Devon & Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner 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 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.
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. The deadline to apply for a voter authority certificate is 5pm next Wednesday 24 April.
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 proxy vote registrations is also 5pm next Wednesday 24 April.
If you miss this deadline 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 from 26 April until 5pm on polling day.
New regulations mean that postal votes can no longer be posted through the Exeter civic centre letterbox in Paris Street.
They can still, however, be handed in to an authorised person at the city council office reception during opening hours, or at any polling station in the elector’s city council ward on polling day.
Postal voters wishing to do either must now complete an extra form in person, and are limited to handing in no more than five postal votes for other electors in addition to their own.
The rules regarding the return of postal votes via Royal Mail remain unchanged. In any case they must arrive by 10pm on polling day.
When all Exeter’s polling stations have closed on Thursday 2 May, the city’s ballot boxes will be taken to the Riverside Leisure Centre so ballot papers can be verified and votes counted.
