2012 Mayoral And Local Elections - Don't Wait Up All Night For Declarations

Don't Wait Up For The Big Election Results This Week...

If like us you can barely contain your excitement about the outcome of the local and mayoral polls taking place on Thursday, you're in for a long wait.

Many councils are not counting their votes until the following morning, and the big story of the night in London won't be known until mid-day on Friday, because counting won't begin until just before 9am, at three locations around the city.

Are you upset? Indifferent? Unaware there were elections at all? This document helpfully provided by the Electoral Commission shows when your local council plans to start counting votes. The table is not complete because some councils have not provided information.

There are no rules on when councils should be counting votes - the table suggests many will declare overnight but about a third won't.

It will make for a strange evening though, because the big results - both in the London Mayoral election and the struggle for control between Labour and the SNP for Glasgow council, won't be revealed until sometime on Friday.

Another interesting story in Birmingham will come in two parts. Council votes are being counted from when the polls close on Thursday night, but the results of the referendum on whether to have a Mayor won't come until Friday afternoon. It'll be a long period of drip-drip results.

It used to be that all elections where counted immediately after the polls close, but given we're in the age of endless austerity, many councils are avoiding paying overtime by holding off until the following morning.

Huffpost can't decide whether it'll be coffee or Horlicks on Thursday night....

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