{"id":473237,"date":"2026-05-07T15:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T15:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/473237\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T15:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T15:53:12","slug":"elections-2026-live-voters-head-to-polls-in-england-scotland-and-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/473237\/","title":{"rendered":"Elections 2026 live: Voters head to polls in England, Scotland and Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Heading to the polls on your lunch break? Here&#8217;s what you need to knowpublished at 12:40 BST<\/p>\n<p>12:40 BST<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1l98ssq-Contributor etflsgg2\"><strong>Nabiha Ahmed<\/strong><br \/>Live reporter<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Our teams have been gathering some of the key questions voters have been searching for this morning before going to the polls.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">If you&#8217;re about to head out the door, here&#8217;s a glossary of our guides to voting in person:<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-cgjb6m-Keyword e2vephq0\">What are today&#8217;s elections?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Local elections are taking place in parts of England, alongside national elections in Scotland and Wales. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/live\/c1428pev1n0t?post=asset%3A5ab204d1-440b-44ca-a19c-d1885661b312#post\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Here&#8217;s a closer look at the contests<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">We also have individual, in-depth guides to each of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/live\/c1428pev1n0t?post=asset%3A78d1dfd4-f5bc-49a2-8714-244c5d789f8b#post\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">England<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/live\/c1428pev1n0t?post=asset%3A3776ce67-aeaa-4afb-abd9-5ba047b37096#post\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Scotland<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/live\/c1428pev1n0t?post=asset%3A947cee91-973e-497f-a89a-3835f1c90453#post\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wales<\/a> votes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-cgjb6m-Keyword e2vephq0\">Do I need ID to vote?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">If you&#8217;re voting in England, you&#8217;ll need to bring photo ID with you. Here&#8217;s a list of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/live\/c1428pev1n0t?post=asset%3A1bf7a710-d3ef-46dd-b2a3-cd0db003ee77#post\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the kinds of ID you can take.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">You do not need ID to vote in person in the Scottish Parliament or Senedd elections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-cgjb6m-Keyword e2vephq0\">Do I need a polling card to vote?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">If you think you know the answer, test your knowledge<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/live\/c1428pev1n0t?post=asset%3A4795c8ec-2df9-41c8-a75e-d4b7ffc91e97#post\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> here<\/a>. (No spoilers!)<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">We&#8217;ve also rounded up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/live\/c1428pev1n0t?post=asset%3A0f44e429-77e0-411e-be06-0e23160692dc#post\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the polling day dos and don&#8217;ts here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-cgjb6m-Keyword e2vephq0\">When will election results be announced? <\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Unlike in a general election, not all votes are being counted overnight. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/live\/c1428pev1n0t?post=asset%3A207f7289-254f-4bb3-9e95-c2d44ec324aa#post\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Here&#8217;s a breakdown<\/a> of when we can expect results to come through.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">If you are planning to stay up, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/live\/c1428pev1n0t?post=asset%3A3c695b6b-4482-4fa6-b1de-2f3f9e7d079b#post\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here&#8217;s how the BBC will be covering the election through the night.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-cgjb6m-Keyword e2vephq0\">What&#8217;s the polling day weather forecast?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It&#8217;s a mixed picture. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/live\/c1428pev1n0t?post=asset%3A9c0600de-c57b-4653-ba6d-d53997cc7ce5#post\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here <\/a>to find out if it&#8217;s sunglasses or an umbrella you&#8217;ll need to pack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heading to the polls on your lunch break? Here&#8217;s what you need to knowpublished at 12:40 BST 12:40&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-473237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-latestnews","15":"tag-main-news","16":"tag-mainnews","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-topstories","20":"tag-world","21":"tag-world-news","22":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}