Exeter’s 91,000 registered electors go to the polls on Thursday 1 May to elect nine councillors to represent them on Devon County Council, with voters in Mincinglake & Whipton and Topsham also taking part in by-elections for two city council seats.
You must be on the electoral register in order to vote. Voter registration for this year’s local elections closed on 11 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.
Postal voting ballots have also been sent to all the 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 1 May, can be found by postcode search on the city council website.
You can find out more about the 46 candidates who are standing in the county council elections in Exeter and the eleven candidates who are standing in both Exeter City Council by-elections 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(s) by marking a cross next to the candidate(s) 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 passed last week.
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 also passed last week.
If you missed 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 until 5pm on polling day.
The city council has also published audio ballot papers for visually-impaired voters on its website.
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 1 May, the city’s ballot boxes will be taken to the Riverside Leisure Centre so ballot papers can be verified.
Exeter City Council by-elections vote counting will take place following vote verification on Thursday evening. The results will be announced in the early hours of Friday morning.
Devon County Council elections vote counting will take place the following day, with results expected during the afternoon.
