Voters will go to polls on ‘Super Thursday’ – but bring a pencil

LOCAL elections will go ahead in England in May – but voters will have to bring their own pencil to mark their ballot paper under new coronavirus safety rules.

In Cornwall there are set to be elections for all 87 seats at the newly slimmed-down Cornwall Council; a number of town and parish council elections; elections for the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner – delayed from last year – and a number of referendums on neighbourhood development plans.

In Devon all 60 county councillors are up for re-election and in Plymouth one third of the council seats are up for re-election. All the votes will take place on May 6.

The Cabinet Office confirmed that “Covid-secure” polls would be held as planned, despite fears that the pandemic would lead to them being postponed again.

Under new rules, voters will have to wear face coverings inside polling stations and will be asked to bring their own pen or pencil to mark their ballot.

And proxy voting rules will be changed so that people who have to self-isolate can request an emergency proxy vote up to 5pm on polling day.

The Cabinet Office said all nine priority cohorts – covering those aged 50

and over – are expected to have received coronavirus vaccines by May, meaning the Government can commit “with confidence” to the polls going ahead.

A bumper set of elections are due to be held across Great Britain on ‘Super Thursday’, May 6, including a number postponed from 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In London, there will be elections for the mayor and assembly, which were originally due to take place last year.

And across the rest of England, voters will be choosing a mixture of councillors, local mayors, regional mayors and police commissioners.

Voters in Scotland and Wales will be choosing new parliaments – though a decision on whether these will go ahead will be made by their respective governments.

The scale of ‘Super Thursday’ means that every voter in Great Britain will be able to take part in at least one type of poll, making it the biggest event of its kind outside a general election.

It will also be the first big electoral test for Sir Keir Starmer since he became Labour leader in April 2020, and for Prime Minister Boris Johnson since his general election victory in December 2019.