The vote count for the Clacton by-election is set to begin Thursday evening, with officials anticipating a prolonged process due to the unprecedented length of the ballot papers. The count is scheduled to commence at 10:00 PM BST at the Clacton Leisure Centre, where larger table areas have been prepared to accommodate the lengthy documents.
Polling stations across the constituency were open from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM BST. Ballot boxes began arriving shortly after polls closed, with the final ones expected by 11:30 PM, given the constituency's mix of rural villages and seaside towns.
This by-election has already set records, with 79,785 individuals registered to vote, and 10,716 of them having received postal votes. The extended ballot papers are expected to slow the counting process significantly. For comparison, the 2024 general election result in Clacton, which had nine candidates, was announced around 4:00 AM. This by-election's outcome is not anticipated until between 5:00 AM and 7:00 AM on Friday.
Election officials are implementing a detailed sorting and verification process for the ballot papers. The scale of the task requires extensive table space to manage the verification and subsequent sorting into piles before the final count can take place.
The constituency of Clacton is located on the Essex coast.
