Voters up and down the country will have their say in the first bumper crop of elections since the coronavirus pandemic hit.
In Wiltshire, voters will be crossing boxes to choose a mixture of councillors, local mayors and police commissioners.
Voters will also decide who they want to take up the role of Police and Crime Commissioner for Wiltshire and decide on referendums on neighbourhood plans.
READ MORE: Wiltshire Council candidates for the May local elections
The PCC elections were due to take place last year but were delayed when the pandemic first took a grip of the world.
With the voter registration deadline looming, we’ve taken a look at what turnout has been like across Wiltshire in recent years.
Electoral Commission data shows that at the last local council elections in 2017, 365,700 people in the area were eligible to vote, with 142,500 of them returning valid ballot papers.
That was a turnout of 39.4 per cent, which was higher than the England average for council and mayoral elections of 35.0 per cent.
Around 42,800 postal votes were included in the count. This includes rejected votes, the ballot box turnout in Wiltshire that year was 39.6 per cent.
Different figures show that 73,400 people in Wiltshire returned valid votes at the Wiltshire PCC election in 2016 – 20.4 per cent of those who were eligible to take part.
New Wiltshire Council chief executive officer, Terence Herbert
Chief executive and returning officer for Wiltshire, Terence Herbert said: “A good turnout is a great indicator of a healthy democracy, as was demonstrated in 2017.
“However, we recognise that understandably the pandemic will likely have an impact on people deciding if they wish to go out and vote on May 6.”
Gavin Grant
Cllr Gavin Grant (Lib Dem) said the council has been successful in promoting the postal vote – which it says is the safest way to vote – adding that between 70 and 75 per cent of postal voters use their ballot.
He said: “The figures are much lower for 'on the day' voters. More like 28 to 33 per cent. The Electoral Commission is my source for this data but it is also very well known among election organisers.
The Police and Crime Commissioner elections, town and parish elections, unitary elections, and ten local neighbourhood planning referendums will all be taking place on May 6. Applications for postal voting closed on April 20.
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