So How Do You Vote?  When the forms are returned the Electoral Registration Officer will use them to make up a draft register for people to check. This is usually published on 28 November each year. It shows the names and addresses of the people who appear to the Electoral Registration Officer to be eligible to vote.
You can see a copy of the draft register in your local council offices, or at post offices and libraries, between 28 November and 16 December. Check that your name is on it. If it isn’t, ask the Electoral Registration Officer to add your name before the final register is published on 15 February. You can still have your name added after that date. But don’t leave it too late. It takes time to change the register and you may not get on in time for an election. If your name is on the register of electors, and you are aged 18 or over, you should get a poll card about a week before an election. This will tell you how and when to vote, and where (usually a local school or community hall). "Polling" is just another word for voting. This card is for information only. Don’t worry if you lose it or forget it - you can still vote without it. It just makes it easier if you take it to the polling station and show it to the clerk there. He or she will give you a ballot paper which is stamped with an official mark. The ballot paper will say how many candidates you can vote for. (In local elections you may have more than one vote; in parliamentary elections you will have only one vote.)  Take the ballot paper to one of the polling booths and put a cross in the box next to the name of the candidate(s) you want to support.
DO NOT write anything else on the ballot paper, otherwise your vote might not count. If you need help to read the ballot paper
ask the Polling Clerk. Once you have voted you can fold the ballot paper to hide your vote. You don’t have to tell anyone who you voted for. It’s as easy as that. I did it and I survived! The above applies to the political process in the United Kingdom and follows the laws of the UK.
- The Pupiline Team
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