Council asks, When Do You Do It?

What do a swimmer, a paramedic, a refuse collector and a musician have in common? They all make time in their days to vote on election day.

With elections coming up on Thursday 2 May, the Council has enlisted the help of a number of local residents to tell us when they cast their votes.

Polling stations will be open from 7am to 10pm on election day, which gives voters a total of 15 hours to find time to go and cast their votes.

Watch our When Do You Do It? video now. 

The video has a light-hearted, slightly cheeky tone, posing the question ‘When do you do it?’ only revealing at the end that ‘it’ is voting.

18 year old Peter Middleton is a first time voter this year. He’ll be doing it with his dad Guy at their local polling station.

Peter said:

Voting for the first time means my values and beliefs will be more understood and makes me feel included in adult British society.

Barbara Chadwick from Audley goes to her local polling station while she’s out walking her dog Buddy. Barbara said:

It was a pleasure to get involved in the video with Buddy as I know he is such a cutie and would appeal to the voting public hopefully to get out there and vote.

Local Guinness World Record holder Raja Aslam says in the video that he goes to vote after the nursery drop-off. He added:

Voting gives you a say on important issues that affect us all such as roads, education, housing and employment.

The video also features Denise Park, Council Chief Executive and Returning Officer for the elections, who says that she sends back her postal vote early.

Denise commented:

It’s really important that anyone who votes by post completes their postal vote and returns it in plenty of time. The best way to send completed postal votes back is via Royal Mail – just post them at your nearest post box in good time before election day to be sure of them being counted.

The government has introduced changes to postal voting this year. The changes mean that anyone who hands in postal votes at Blackburn Town Hall or at a a polling station must sign a declaration form with a member of the Council’s Elections team.

Any one person can now only hand in up to five postal votes, plus their own.

And election agents and campaigners can only handle postal votes from their immediate family or people they regularly care for.

There’s lots of information on elections and voting, including voting by post, on the Council website: www.blackburn.gov.uk/elections-and-voting.