Embedded Files
The 2024 local elections for Councils, Combined Authority Mayors and Police and Crime Commissioners are due to be held on Thursday 2 May. We provide some information for Merseyside ARMs members by local authority.
These will be only the second set of local elections held under the law introduced by the Tory government requiring voters to show photo ID when attending a polling station. This system was introduced to help the government gerrymander election results as suggested by none other than Jacob Rees-Mogg.
The Mayoral and Police and Crime Commissioner elections will use a first-past-the-post voting system replacing previous arrangements.
The arrangements for voting vary from council to council as follows:
Halton
18 seats (out of 54) are up for election.
Knowsley
15 seats (out of 45) are up for election.
Liverpool
The next whole council elections will be in 2027.
Sefton
22 seats (out of 66) are up for election.
St. Helens
The next whole council elections will be in 2026.
Wirral
The next whole council elections will be in 2027.
Liverpool City Region Mayoral Election
Elections are held every 4 years. This election will take place on Thursday 2 May 2024 and voters in all of the above local authorities will be entitled to vote.
Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Election
Elections are held every 4 years. This election will take place on Thursday 2nd May 2024 and voters in all of the above local authorities, except Halton, will be entitled to vote.
Not registered to Vote?
If you aren't currently registered, or you need to update your details you can do so online and it only takes a few minutes. Click here for information and to start the process.
Photo ID
Under the Tory Voter Identification Regulations 2022, voters in England now need to show photo ID to vote at polling stations in some elections. This will apply to:
UK parliamentary elections, including general elections, by-elections and recall petitions
Local elections and by-elections
Police and Crime Commissioner elections
Click here to find out which forms of voter ID are deemed to be acceptable and how to apply for a Voter Authority Certificate if you don't possess any of those documents. The deadline to apply for free voter ID for the elections on Thursday 2 May is 5pm on Wednesday 24 April.
To put this draconian legislation into some sort of context, in the past 5 years, there is no evidence of large-scale electoral fraud. Of the 1,386 cases of alleged electoral fraud reported to police countrywide between 2018 and 2022, 9 led to convictions and the police issued 6 cautions. Most cases either resulted in the police taking no further action or were locally resolved by the police issuing words of advice.
By comparison, 25 MPs have been suspended in the current Parliament alone. Perhaps the hammer is cracking the wrong nut.
March 2024
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse