Press Release
What voters need to know for Thursday 5 May
Returning Officer, Jan Riise.
With The Scottish Parliamentary Elections and a UK-wide referendum on Thursday 5 May Shetland Islands Council is reminding voters what they need to know to have their say on polling day:
- Polling stations will be open from 7am – 10pm. You should have received a card with details of your local polling station. If not, please call: 01595 744 554.
- When voting at a polling station, it’s helpful to take your poll card with you. But if you don’t have it, don’t let that stop you – you can still vote.
- Polling station staff will give you ballot papers for The Scottish Parliamentary Election and, if you are eligible to vote in the UK-wide referendum, a ballot paper for that too. Staff will not be able to give you ballot papers after 10pm, so do arrive in good time.
- The referendum is on the voting system used for elections to the UK Parliament and the 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?”
- Explanations of these voting systems are available at www.aboutmyvote.co.uk or you can order a copy of the Electoral Commission public information booklet on 0800 3 280 280. Staff will not be able to provide this information at polling stations.
- If you applied for a postal vote, it needs to be received by the Return Officer by 10pm on Thursday 5 May. If you have left it too late to post back, you can drop it off at any Shetland polling station before close of poll or at 4 Market Street in Lerwick before 5pm.
For more information, visit www.aboutmyvote.co.uk