Use your vote in Nottinghamshire County Council elections, says Newark and Sherwood District Council chief executive

On Thursday 1 May, elections will take place across the whole of Nottinghamshire to decide which 66 local councillors will represent 600,000 electors served by the county council, writes John Robinson, chief executive of Newark and Sherwood District Council.

Across Newark and Sherwood, we have 10 separate County divisions. Last time round in 2021, some 34,000 residents cast their votes in what was a very different elections environment as we were still in the midst of the worldwide COVID pandemic.

Voter ID is familiar to many of us now, but it’s always worth a polite reminder to bring along photo identification if you intend to vote at polling stations. Since its introduction, we’ve had limited problems but if this is your first time voting or you’re a little unsure about what identification is acceptable, you can visit this link on our website www.newark-sherwooddc.gov.uk/voterid/.

Across the district, we have 111 polling stations in 91 venues, which will be open from 7am until 10pm. At the close of poll, all of the ballot boxes are securely delivered to Newark Leisure Centre for the first stage of the counting process.

We call this “Verification” and there are a range of legal steps that have to be followed to match the number of ballot papers received to the number of ballot papers that are issued.

What should be a straightforward task often isn’t – we have people putting their ballot papers in the wrong box, walking off with them etc etc!

For a General Election, we count overnight but for this election, the count takes place in seven different locations on Friday 2 May. It’s never sensible to predict a finishing time but by mid to late afternoon on Friday, I expect that the outcome will be known or certainly becoming very clear!

As always, I’m extremely grateful to the army of colleagues and volunteers who help with the running of the election. It’s expected that this election across Newark and Sherwood, will involve around 250 staff on the day itself and about 80 overnight and on the following day to deal with the verification and count.

Making a mark on a piece of paper and putting it into a ballot box or post-box seems odd for our digital world, but it remains a crucial element of local democracy and something people fought so hard for us to have. I’d encourage everyone who can vote, to vote.

You can check out the full list of candidates at https://www.newark-sherwooddc.gov.uk/your-council/your-council/elections/1-may-2025-county-council-elections/.

Nottinghamshire County Council is responsible for a wide range of services that touch our everyday lives, like the roads, social care and disposal of waste.