Published on Friday 05 May 2023
The counting of votes has begun in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council local elections.
The count is taking place at the Bournemouth International Centre (BIC) today, with the first ward declaration expected in a few hours.
Verification of all votes began at 10am this morning. There were 90,859 votes cast in total.
Turnout at this election was 30.62%
The full council declaration of results is expected this evening.
Residents can also follow @BCPCouncil on Twitter. Results will be posted straight onto social media as they are announced.
By the end of the night, a total of 76 councillors will be elected from the 335 candidates that stood in the elections.
Graham Farrant, Returning Officer of BCP Council said: "As returning officer, my job today is to make sure there is a fair election process and that all the votes are counted.
"I really enjoy seeing the effect of local people taking part in their democratic right to vote and seeing how that makes a change or difference in the way the council runs."
Voters made use of 161 Polling stations across 129 sites yesterday.
There were 17 temporary stations set up at locations across the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole area especially for these elections.
A total of 650 polling booths were delivered to the stations to accommodate in person voters. Each station had an accessibility booth, along with other support material for accessible voting.
The elections saw 498 Polling station staff work yesterday and 420 count and ballot box drop off staff worked late into the night and throughout the day today.
Ahead of polling day yesterday 42,298 postal votes were sent out. A group of 40 opening staff began opening the retuned postal ballots in the early hours of this morning.
At the BIC today are just under one thousand candidates, election agents, counting agents, and candidate’s guests.
Find out more at bcpcouncil.gov.uk/election2023