{"id":570627,"date":"2026-05-07T07:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T07:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/570627\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T07:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T07:01:09","slug":"uk-elections-2026-polls-open-in-england-scotland-and-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/570627\/","title":{"rendered":"UK elections 2026: Polls open in England, Scotland and Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Polling day dos and don&#8217;tspublished at 06:38 BST<\/p>\n<p>06:38 BST<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A woman takes a selfie with a child outside a polling station at the Church of St Barnabas in Pimlico\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/f0132e1c-8643-4e97-bfaf-e1997b13acaf.jpg.webp.webp\"  width=\"5006\" height=\"2817\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, Reuters<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">If you&#8217;re about to head out to your local polling station, here&#8217;s a quick guide to what you can and can&#8217;t do when voting in person.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Can you take your own pen or pencil?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Writing implements are provided but you can bring your own if you wish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Do you have to bring your own polling card?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">If you are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.electoralcommission.org.uk\/voting-and-elections\/register-vote\" class=\"ssrcss-ztter6-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">registered to vote, external<\/a>, you will be sent a polling card with your polling number and polling station details.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">You do not need to take the polling card with you but it might speed up the process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Do you need photo ID to vote in person?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Voters in England need to take valid photo ID to vote in person. You do not need ID to vote in the Scottish Parliament or Senedd elections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Can you take children with you?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bringing children to the polling station is encouraged, to help educate them about democracy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But they are not allowed to mark your vote on the ballot paper.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">What about your pet?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Animals, apart from assistance dogs, are not usually allowed in polling stations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, other dogs can be admitted at the discretion of the local authority.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Can you take a selfie?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">You are not allowed to take photos inside a polling station because the Electoral Commission &#8211; which oversees UK elections &#8211; says it risks the secrecy of the ballot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">People are welcome to take photos outside.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Can you vote in any polling station?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">You can only vote at your local polling station, which might not be the same as in previous elections. You can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.electoralcommission.org.uk\/voting-and-elections\/ways-vote\/voting-person\" class=\"ssrcss-ztter6-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">find your local polling station here., external<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Can you vote after 22:00 when the polls officially close?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Polling stations are open between 07:00 BST and 22:00. You can vote after 22:00 as long as you were already in the queue at that point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Polling day dos and don&#8217;tspublished at 06:38 BST 06:38 BST Image source, Reuters If you&#8217;re about to head&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-570627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}