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When Is The General Election And How Do I Vote?

When Is The General Election And How Do I Vote?
Sara C Nelson
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When Is The General Election? The all important poll will take place in the United Kingdom on Thursday 7 May 2015.

Polling booths will be open between 7am and 10pm and votes will be counted once the polls close. Your council will send you a poll card just before the election telling you where and when to vote.

In order to vote in the UK elections you must be registered. You may register to vote if you are 16 years old or over (although you cannot vote until you are aged 18), a British citizen, or an Irish, Commonwealth or European Union citizen who is resident in the UK.

Thursday 5 February is National Voter Registration Day 2015

To register online in England, Scotland and Wales, you can fill out simple forms here.

These are the UK's five main political parties:

To register by post, print off this form and send it to your local Electoral Registration Office.

If you prefer, you can contact your local Electoral Registration Office and ask them to post a form to you.

100 Facts About The General Election 2015

To register in Northern Ireland, print off and complete an Electoral Registration Form and return it to your Area Electoral Office.

If you are a British citizen living abroad, you can apply to be an overseas voter, if you are a member of the armed forces or the spouse or civil partner of someone in the armed forces you can register as a service voter here.

If you will be away on polling day, you can apply to vote by post or by proxy.

To check if you are already registered, contact your Electoral Registration Officer by entering your postcode on this website.

7 Reasons Why Ed Miliband Should Be Worried About The 2015 General Election
Dave has the advantage of incumbency(01 of06)
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Cameron was denied a majority in 2010, but still succeeded in turfing Gordon Brown out of Downing Street through some shrewd negotiating with the Lib Dems. He is THE prime minister, looks prime ministerial and goes into the next election with the advantage of incumbency. Voters tend to give even weak elected prime ministers more than one shot (see John Major 1992 and Harold Wilson 1966). (credit:Arrow Press/EMPICS Entertainment )
Miliband would have to match Maggie... (02 of06)
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No party has come back into government after just one term of opposition since 1979, when Margaret Thatcher beat Jim Callaghan. (credit:Joanna Kiyoné/Flickr)
Can voters really imagine Ed as PM?(03 of06)
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Miliband routinely does worse than Cameron in polls asking who voters imagine would be the best Prime Minister, so it seems the Labour leader is failing the "blink test" of looking like a potential PM. And the right-wing media coverage of "weird Ed" and "red Ed" doesn't help him either. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Ed can't take Nick's voters for granted(04 of06)
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A Lib-Dem meltdown could see voters, according to research, drift to the Tories, not just Labour. (credit:Olivia Harris/PA Wire)
It's the economy, stupid(05 of06)
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With the coalition already trumpeting the economic recovery, their poll lead can only soar as people's pay packets start to recover. Plus, Labour has struggled to win over big business. (credit:PA/PA Archive)
And Nigel could take some of Ed's votes too(06 of06)
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Ukip's strongest support often comes from older working classvoters, who tend to vote Labour. A recent Fabian Society pamphlet also suggests that Ukip poses a threat to the Opposition in certain Labour marginals. (credit:FREDERICK FLORIN via Getty Images)
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