Here’s a few key pieces of information for polling day.

Voting in person

• Polling stations are open between 7am and 10pm today. No votes can be cast after 10pm; it’s not like the shops where being in the queue at closing time is enough.
• You don’t need your polling card to vote (but in Northern Ireland you do need to bring ID with you).
• You have to vote at your local polling station, which is indicated on the card. If you’ve lost your card and aren’t sure where to vote, you can contact your local council.
• In most parts of the country you’ll be given more than one ballot paper today. Check the instructions carefully as, for example, you should only put one cross on the referendum ballot paper but you may also live in a ward where you can vote for more than one local council candidate.
• EU citizens can vote in local elections even though they can’t vote in the referendum (which is open to anyone qualified to vote in a Westminster general election, plus peers).

Voting by post

• Postal ballots can be handed in at polling stations today.
• Make sure all the paperwork is completed and put inside the (outer) sealed envelope. It’s best if you return this to a polling station yourself, but if you can’t make it you can ask someone else you trust to take the sealed envelope to a polling station for you.
• If you get the paperwork wrong, your postal vote will be invalid. One of the most common mistakes is filling in the date field wrongly, as I explain in this short video:

Other tips

• If a last minute medical emergency prevents you going to vote, you have until 5pm today to apply for an emergency proxy so that someone else can vote on your behalf. Contact your local council ASAP to arrange this.
• One point I’ve never heard anyone raise but really, thinking about it, lots of people should ask: it’s safe to use the pencils in the voting booths: they are not ordinary pencils, but special indelible pencils – so don’t worry, no-one can erase and alter your vote if use the pencil.

And once you’ve voted…

There’s no better way to encourage someone to vote, and vote Liberal Democrat, than if they see that their friends have also done so. So send a tweet or update your Facebook status, both of which you can easily do via the Lib Dem Voice Facebook app.

Finally, though it’s often under-appreciated, days like today are ones that – for all the many disagreements between parties and candidates – we should be proud of the tens of thousands of volunteers who will be putting in hours from before the crack of dawn until well after dusk in a democracy where elections are run without the sort of political manipulation that disfigures so-called elections in far too many countries.

It’s no secret that I think we will become a better democracy if there is a yes vote today, but even without one we’re a far better and healthier democracy than many of the countries where political activists have to risk life and limb in elections that are then rigged. That’s something to cherish.

So good luck, but extra luck if you’re a Liberal Democrat 🙂