When will the local election results be announced? The expected schedule for 2024
Voters are heading to the polls today as thousands of council seats in England are contested, alongside mayoral elections and elections for police and crime commissioners too.
In London, Labour’s Sadiq Khan is bidding for an unprecedented third term, while the other London mayoral candidates are hoping to oust him.
But when will the results of the 2024 local elections be announced? We’ve outlined the expected schedule below…
Follow Metro.co.uk’s local elections 2024 live blog for the latest updates.
When will the local election results be announced?
The 2024 local election results will be announced at different times, depending on the constituency.
This is because some councils will start counting votes as soon as polls close at 10pm, and continue to count overnight, while others will not start the count until the next morning.
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Friday 3 May:
Roughly a third of councils are expected to count the votes overnight, meaning the first results can be expected around midnight on Friday 3 May.
For other councils, the first results are expected at midday on Friday. Results will continue through the afternoon, with some expected in the evening too.
The mayoral elections results for the East Midlands, North East, Tees Valley, and York and North Yorkshire are also expected on this day.
The Blackpool South by-election result is expected in the early hours of Friday morning.
Saturday 4 May:
On Saturday 4 May, the results for North Tyneside, Stroud and Warrington are expected.
The declaration of mayoral and London-wide Assembly Member results will take place at City Hall on Saturday evening.
A further five mayoral election results are also expected on Saturday, which includes Liverpool City Region, South Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, West Midlands and West Yorkshire.
Sunday 5 May:
The result for Salford, in Manchester, is expected on Sunday 5 May.
The results of the police and crime commissioners elections will be spread over the weekend, with some announced on Friday and others revealed as late as Sunday.
What do the different voting systems mean?
Some of the ballot papers in this year’s local elections may look slightly different to last time.
For example, elections for mayors in England and for Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales used the Supplementary Vote system until May last year.
But you don’t need to worry about that anymore – this year, almost all of the votes will use the simple first-past-the-post system that’s also used to elect MPs to Westminster. The candidate with the highest percentage of votes wins.
The London Assembly elections are the exception, since they use the Additional Member system.
In that case, voters will get two ballot papers: one with the list of candidates for your constituency, and the other with a list of parties.
The candidate vote is decided using first-past-the-post, and then the make-up of the rest of the London Assembly is decided according to the percentage of votes that each party received city-wide.
Voters will only cast one vote per ballot paper.
What is tactical voting?
If you’re voting for a candidate you wouldn’t normally support, so they beat another candidate who you really don’t want to win, that’s called tactical voting.
For example, let’s say you’d usually vote for the Bronze party, but they’re way behind in the polls and the election is going to be a tight race between the Silver and Gold parties.
You think the Gold candidate is a complete idiot and are desperate for him not to win. So, you might decide to tactically vote for the Silver party, since they’ve got the best chance against him and a vote for Bronze could be considered ‘wasted’.
This method of voting is completely legal – voters are free to choose any candidate on the ballot paper, no matter what the reason is.
It’s most effective under the first-past-the-post voting system, which will be used in every election taking place on May 2 except the London Assembly (which uses the more proportional Additional Member System).
Are there local elections in my area?
In England, 107 councils are holding local elections, along with the London Assembly.
Some are holding votes for all their seats – while others have around a third of seats up for grabs.
There are regional mayoral contests in London, Greater Manchester, Liverpool, the West Midlands, Tees Valley, South Yorkshire, and West Yorkshire. There are also three positions for new mayoralties in the North East, York and North Yorkshire and the East Midlands. Salford also elects a new mayor.
Londoners are also voting for a new London Assembly (the government body which scrutinises the mayor’s work).
Separately, there is a parliamentary by-election taking place in Blackpool South, after the sitting Conservative MP was caught in a lobbying sting.
You can see which local elections are taking place near you with the Electoral Commission’s postcode checker.
How can local elections affect general elections?
These are the last set of local elections before the next general election. While the votes cast do not directly impact the forthcoming national poll, they can tell us a lot about voters’ mood.
A better or worse-than-expected result for the Conservatives could also influence when the Prime Minister chooses to call a general election.
Should Tory mayors Andy Street and Ben Houchen hang on to their roles, Sunak may feel more comfortable facing the ballot box. If the party takes a beating in some of its southern ‘Blue Wall’ heartlands, he may wish to hold off in the hope the picture improves.
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