Major change to local elections for the first time in 154 years
Voters in England’s upcoming local elections will get the chance to cast their ballot in a shopping centre instead of a booth, as part of a trial aiming to make the process easier.
Rather than having to make a special trip to their local polling place, residents of Milton Keynes will be able to vote while they pop to the shops at centre:mk on May 7.
Meanwhile, people in three other parts of England will get the chance to vote on the weekend before the full-scale election takes place.
The move means Cambridge, Tunbridge Wells and North Hertfordshire will not be limited to a single polling day.
It will mark the first major change to the way we vote since the Secret Ballot Act in 1872, which allowed Brits to vote in private for the first time.
Samantha Dixon, the Minister for Democracy, said: ‘The way we vote in person has not adapted to people’s busy lives, with voters often given no choice but to cast their ballot at strictly set polling stations within limited hours.
Want to understand more about how politics affects your life?
Metro's senior politics reporter Craig Munro breaks down all the chaos into easy to follow insight, in Metro's politics newsletter Alright, Gov? Sent every Wednesday. Sign up here.
‘Our trials will make polling days more convenient and test out the first real changes for over 100 years, bringing our democracy into the 21st century.’
Future pilots could mean mobile voting stations are sent to locations like care homes, universities or community centres to make it as easy as possible to participate in elections.
Labour has also proposed allowing voters to cast their ballot at any polling place within their local authority area, instead of being limited to a single location.
Any eligible voter will be able to access the central hubs being set up for the local elections on May 7.
In Cambridge, the hubs will appear at Guildhall, The Clay Farm Centre and The Meadows Community Centre.
The locations for North Hertfordshire and Tunbridge Wells are yet to be confirmed.
Traditional polling places will also operate alongside the new options, and people will still be able to choose to vote by post or proxy.
The government has pledged to publish the results of the trials later in the year, and use them to inform any future decisions about electoral reform.
Today’s announcement comes as Parliament prepares to vote for the first time on the Representation of the People Bill, which would lower the voting age to 16 and bring in new rules on political donations.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.