Voting in the Council election

Election 2017

There are three ways to vote in the Council election on 4 May 2017:

• In person, at our polling places from 7am to 10pm on Thursday 4 May 2017. Your polling place will be detailed on your poll card (which you will receive through the post). You don’t need your poll card to vote. You can find your polling place using our property search.
• By post – as long as you have registered for a postal vote. Your vote must be received by 10pm on Thursday 4 May 2017 or it won’t be counted – if you leave it too late to post your vote back to us, you can hand it in to any polling place within South Ayrshire before they close at 10pm on polling day. You can download postal vote registration forms from the Electoral Registration Office website or at www.aboutmyvote.co.uk.
• By proxy – where you trust someone else to cast your vote on your behalf. You must be registered for a proxy vote to do this. You can download proxy vote registration forms from the Electoral Registration Office website or at www.aboutmyvote.co.uk.

Casting your vote

Councillors are elected using the ‘Single Transferable Vote’ – or STV – voting system. This means you vote using numbers instead of a cross (X).

Your ballot paper will list the name and address of each candidate standing for election. Their party name and logo will also be included, where appropriate. If they are not standing for a party, it will say ‘independent’.

To vote, number the candidates in order of choice. You must put a 1 next to your first choice, a 2 next to your second choice, a 3 next to your third choice and a 4 next to your fourth choice and so on.

You can number as many or as few candidates as you like. So, if there are six candidates, you can vote for just one (by writing 1 in the relevant box), all six (numbering the boxes 1-6 in order of choice) or for any number in between (again numbering from 1, depending on how many candidates you want to choose).