IT’S DECISION DAY
Find out all you need to know before casting your vote
Renfrewshire hits the polls today to choose its MSPs for the next fiveyear term in the Scottish Parliament.
Anyone who is aged 16 or over and is registered to vote will have received a card in the post inviting them to visit a polling station to decide who should represent their community at Holyrood until 2026.
Depending on where you live in Renfrewshire, you’ll be voting in one of three constituencies – Renfrewshire North and West, Paisley, or Renfrewshire South.
Everyone who visits a polling place will be asked to cast two votes – one on a purple ballot paper and another on a peach one.
The purple paper is the constituency vote where you’ll be able to mark an X next to a named candidate that you want as your area’s MSP and whoever gets the most votes wins the seat.
Then, on the peach paper, you’ll also be able to pick a party. This is known as the regional list vote and is there to try and ensure the political makeup of the parliament most closely reflects the way the country has voted.
There are eight regions in total across Scotland and everyone in Renfrewshire will be voting to elect MSPs for the West Scotland region.
There are seven seats in this region and everyone’s votes will be used as part of an equation to determine which parties get what share of those seats.
You do not need to vote for the same political party on both papers.
Once you’ve made your decision, you’ll be able to fold up your ballots and put them into the appropriately labelled boxes.
If you’ve taken part in an election before, the process might sound familiar, but there will be a few other factors to consider this time, given the vote is taking place in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.
Every polling place across Renfrewshire will have extra safety measures in place to try and limit the spread of infection and you will be asked to use hand sanitiser, follow one-way systems and wear a face covering while inside, unless you are exempt. If you forget a mask, covid supervisors will be able to give you one.
If you want to, you can bring your own pen with you to vote, but staff will provide you with a single-use pencil otherwise.
Cleaners will be working at all 68 polling places across Renfrewshire to sanitise surfaces regularly, but you will be able to wipe your booth yourself if you wish with wipes provided.
If you are forced to isolate on polling day because you have contracted coronavirus or a member of your household or close contact has got a positive test, you will have until 5pm on the day to apply for an emergency proxy. To do this, call 0300 300 0150. All polling stations will be open from 7am until 10pm.