EFFORTS are in place to boost voter turnout for the all-out elections in Warrington in May.

The council has 58 councillors representing 22 wards in the town.

On May 2, residents in the borough will be able to vote in borough and parish council elections, as well as the election for Cheshire’s police and crime commissioner.

Polling stations will be open from 7am until 10pm.

Following the all-out elections in May this year, the next council elections in Warrington will take place in May 2028 and then May 2032.

The average voter turnout in the council elections in May 2021 totalled approximately 36.3 per cent.

The council says it is currently working on an awareness-raising campaign for the local elections in May to ‘encourage registration and voting’.

This includes communicating requirements for voter ID in polling stations, where people will have to apply by April 24 if they don’t have an accepted form of ID.

It also includes changes to postal voting arrangements, where people will have to apply by April 17, due to the implementation of the Elections Act 2022, as well as ensuring people know they can vote by proxy, if necessary, by April 24.

“The campaign will also aim to provide additional support to our communities including providing translated materials and accessibility aids such as braille and large print versions of materials,” said a council spokesman.

“We will have approximately 127 polling stations in the borough, with presiding officers running these together with approximately 268 poll clerks. The numbers of count staff required is likely to be around 432 over three days, as we will be verifying the number of votes for the borough, parish and PCC elections on Friday, the count for borough and PCC will be on Saturday and the parish counts will be on the Sunday.

“Costs are not finalised at this point and could vary as we do not yet know which parishes are likely to be contested.

“The council recovers the portion of costs of running the police and crime commissioner elections from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). Borough and parish elections are funded by the borough. The Government also makes a contribution towards the introduction of Voter ID and the implementation of requirements for the Elections Act 2022 for the upcoming elections on 2 May 2024.”