Estimated Declaration Time for May Elections

Published on 14 April 2010

Epping Forest District Council will be holding District Council and Parliamentary elections for the Epping Forest Constituency this year. The Epping Forest count will take place at Theydon Bois Village Hall. Admittance will be restricted to media, candidates, agents, party officials and members by prior arrangement only.

Polling stations open at 7am on Thursday 6 May 2010. Polling has been extended and residents will now be able to vote up to 10pm.

The extension of polling will have a knock-on effect upon the declaration of results. Where Councils such as Epping Forest District are also holding regular local elections there will be further delays. This is due to the need to verify all ballot boxes for Parliamentary and Local elections before the Parliamentary election can be counted.

Verification is the process by which the number of votes in each ballot box is checked against the number recorded at the polling station and ensures any votes mistakenly placed in the wrong ballot box (Parliamentary votes in the District ballot box and vice-versa) are placed in the correct count.

Only once the District Election and Parliamentary Election ballot boxes have been verified can the count leading to the declaration of the Parliamentary Election be made. Depending on a number of factors such as turnout (the number of people who vote) and the possibility of a recount (if the result is close) declaration of the Parliamentary result is expected some time between 2am and 4am.

Following the declaration of the Parliamentary result, the Returning Officer will send all count staff home for some sleep, before recommencing the District Council Election Count at 1pm on Friday afternoon.

Results of the Epping Forest Elections will be posted on this website.

Two further Parliamentary constituency counts covering parts of Epping Forest District will take place in Harlow (Harlow Constituency) and Brentwood (Brentwood and Ongar Constituency).

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