{"id":736466,"date":"2026-08-13T08:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T08:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/736466\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T08:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T08:12:09","slug":"clacton-voters-go-to-the-polls-in-westminster-by-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/736466\/","title":{"rendered":"Clacton voters go to the polls in Westminster by-election"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The polls have opened in Clacton-on-Sea as a record number of candidates vie to become the town&#8217;s next MP.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">An electorate of 79,785 registered voters have the chance to vote for one of 34 candidates standing in the Essex resort &#8211; the most ever to stand in a British election.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Fifty-one polling stations have opened, covering Clacton and the surrounding towns of Jaywick, Frinton and Walton-on-the-Naze. The constituency also has rural villages including St Osyth, Weeley and Great Bentley.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Voters will need to show a form of acceptable ID &#8211; such as a driving licence or passport &#8211; to be able to cast their ballot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They will receive the longest ballot paper in British electoral history at 90cm &#8211; about 3ft long &#8211; to choose their candidate and cast their vote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">There are 12 political parties and 20 independents standing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Polling stations will remain open to anyone registered to vote until 22:00, with the count taking place overnight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The polls have opened in Clacton-on-Sea as a record number of candidates vie to become the town&#8217;s next&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-736466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736466","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=736466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}