Election week: Make sure you’re ready to vote

Published: 2 May 2023

It’s election week in Derby, and now is the time to make sure you’re ready to have your say on Thursday 4 May.

If you’re voting in person, you need to bring photo ID with you to be able to vote. This could be your passport, your driving license, or any other form of accepted photo ID. You can also use ID that has expired if the image is still a good likeness.

To save time on polling day, make sure you know where your ID is and have it ready in advance. If you do get to the polling station and realise you’ve forgotten it, you can come back any time before 10pm.

Every seat is up for election for the first time since 2002. That means your ballot paper will have a lot more candidates on it than usual and you’ll be able to vote for more than one.

Three is the magic number in most wards, except for Chaddesden North, East and West where there will only be two councillors.

Your postal vote needs to be returned to the elections team no later than 10pm on Thursday 4 May.

If it doesn’t then your vote won’t be counted. If you’re not able to post yours in time, you can take it to the Council House or your local polling station, details of this will be on your polling card.

Certain Royal Mail postboxes in the city are designated as priority and have later collection times. 98% of them are collected after 4pm, so if you are still posting your vote, visit the Royal Mail website to see if there is one near you.

There have been changes to the polling stations and ward boundaries since the last election. Your poll card will tell you where your polling station is, or you can find it on the Where Do I Vote website.

Remember, you can only vote in the polling station you’ve been assigned to.

Derby’s election cycle is changing to every four years. That means the successful candidates from these elections will remain in power until the next local elections in 2027.

In previous years, a third of councillors were elected every year for three out of four years. Councillors voted to move to four-yearly whole Council elections in early 2022, bringing Derby in line with Derbyshire and the rest of the country.

All British, Commonwealth and European Union citizens living in the UK, that have registered to vote and are over the age of 18, can vote in local elections.

Polling stations will be open from 7am to 10pm on Thursday 4 May. Once the polls close at 10pm, all the ballot boxes will be taken to Derby Arena, where the votes will be stored securely before being counted and verified the following day.

Democracy