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Voters urged to get ready for ‘Super Thursday’
Published 28.04.2011 11:51
The Electoral Commission, the independent elections and referendum watchdog, is urging voters to get ready before they go to the polls on Thursday 5 May.

With only a few days to go before many areas in England have local elections and the UK-wide referendum on the voting system used to elect MPs takes place, now is the time when voters will be making up their minds how to cast their votes on polling day.

The Commission’s advice to voters is:

Be prepared
The Commission has sent information booklets on the local elections and the referendum to every household. The booklet can be seen and downloaded from www.aboutmyvote.co.uk (external website) or ordered from our helpline on 0800 3 280 280.

The referendum question being put to voters on Thursday 5 May is: “At present, the UK uses the ’first past the post’ system to elect MPs to the House of Commons. Should the ‘alternative vote’ system be used instead?” Voters need to mark an ‘X’ next to ‘Yes’ or ‘No’

Plan when to vote
Polling stations are open from 7am to 10pm on Thursday 5 May. Make sure you arrive in good time – by law, polling station staff cannot give out ballot papers after 10pm, even if you are in the polling station. So don’t cut it too fine!

Voting by post?
Postal voters need to be received by the Returning Officer by 10pm on Thursday 5 May. If you’ve left it too late to post back, you can drop it off at your polling station or call your local council to find out where to return it.

On the day
Details of where your polling station is can be found on your poll card. You don’t need this to vote, but it may help speed up the process if you have it with you. If you don’t, don’t let that put you off voting. At the polling station, the staff are there to help you with any practical issues, but of course will not be able to help you decide how to cast your vote or explain the two voting systems that are the subject of the referendum.

And finally… stay tuned for the results!
Local election counts will start on Friday 6 May.

Counting for the referendum begins at 4pm on Friday 6 May. All the referendum results can be seen on our website, so stay tune to find out how your part of the country has voted at: www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/referendumresults (external website)