When can you vote?
Polling day is this Thursday, 4 July, and polling stations will be open from 7am-10pm.
Where do you vote?
If you’re registered to vote in person, the location of your polling station will be printed on your polling card, or you can find out where your local polling station is on our website. You can only vote at your allocated polling station.
Voter ID
This is the first General Elections in Merton where you will be required to show photo ID when you vote in person at a polling station. If you do not show photo ID, you will not receive a ballot paper. You can find a full list of accepted IDs on our website.
You may show an expired ID if the photo still looks like you. If you don’t have any accepted photo ID, you should apply for an emergency proxy before 5pm on election day, then for future elections you can apply for a free Voter Authority Certificate.
You do not need to show ID if you are handing in a postal vote.
Postal Votes
If you have an unposted postal vote, you can drop this off at any polling station, or at the Civic Centre. If you do this you must complete a form with some personal details when you hand in the postal vote, or your vote won’t be accepted.
The Civic Centre is open from 9am-5pm. Please see our reception to complete the form that needs to be completed with your postal vote. Don’t put your postal vote in the post box outside the Civic Centre, it will not be accepted.
If you’re registered for a postal vote, but you haven’t received it, visit our dedicated webpage to find out how you can get your ballot paper re-issued.
People with disabilities
Most of our polling stations are wheelchair accessible.
Inside the polling station are large print versions of the ballot paper. Voters with poor eyesight can use a special device to help them mark their vote.
There is also at least one booth that is accessible to wheelchairs.
Any voter who has poor eyesight or other physical disability, or who is unable to read, can ask the presiding officer in the polling station to allow a companion to help them.
The companion must be a close relative over 18 or a person who is entitled to vote at the election. The presiding officer can do the same things to help. Everyone has to follow legal rules to maintain the secrecy of the person’s vote.
What are we voting for?
At each General Election, voters elect a Member of Parliament (MP) to represent their local area. The country is divided into 650 constituencies, which means that a party needs to win 326 MPs to form a government.
In Merton, we have two constituencies – Wimbledon, and Mitcham and Morden. Find out which constituency you live in.
On 4 July, voters who live in the Figges Marsh and St Helier wards will also be voting in a local by-election. The winners of these contests will become councillors, after the resignation of two councillors earlier this year.
How to vote
For the General Election, you will receive a single ballot paper with all of the available candidates. This election uses a system called First Past the Post (FPTP), which means you can only vote for one candidate, and the candidate with the most votes wins.
If you live in the wards of Figges Marsh or St Helier, you will also receive a ballot paper for the local by-elections. Again, these elections are for a single councillor, so you will only get to vote for one candidate.
The candidates
The candidates for both our local constituencies in the General Election, and the two local by-elections can be found on our website:
- Candidates in the Mitcham and Morden constituency
- Candidates in the Wimbledon constituency
- Candidates in the Figges Marsh by-election
- Candidates in the St Helier by-election
When will we find out the results
Counting for both the General Election and our two local by-elections will take place overnight after polls close at 10pm on 4 July. We’re expecting the results for Mitcham and Morden to be declared at approximately 3am and for the Wimbledon constituency at approximately 3.30-4am. The two by-election results will follow shortly afterwards.