General election: What voters in Scarborough and Whitby need to know ahead of July 4

Voters go to the polls on Thursday July 4.

The general election polls will open in just a few days and this is what voters in Scarborough and Whitby need to know.

On Thursday, July 4, voters in Scarborough and Whitby can vote in the general election to decide their new member of parliament.

Polls will be open from 7am – 10pm and registered voters should have received polling cards with the address of their polling place in the post.

You don’t need to bring your poll card with you but voters must have a valid form of photo ID when voting in person.

North Yorkshire Council has also urged postal voters to “make their vote count” and has stressed that there is still time for anyone who has not received their postal vote to pick up a ballot paper ahead of the polling day.

The deadline to pick up a replacement ballot paper for people who have not received their postal vote is 5pm on Thursday.

After the close of voting, the counting of votes will begin across the county. In Scarborough and Whitby, results are expected to be announced after 3am and the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) will be sharing the results as soon as they are announced.

The area’s current MP Sir Robert Goodwill has retired and the coastal constituency will get a new representative in parliament.

There are eight candidates on the ballot paper in the Scarborough and Whitby constituency – the list of candidates has been confirmed as follows:

David Bowes, Reform UK
Lee Derrick, Yorkshire Party
Thomas Foster, Social Democratic Party
Annette Hudspeth, Green Party
Alison Hume, Labour Party
Asa Jones, Social Justice Party
Robert Graham Lockwood, Liberal Democrats
Roberto Weeden-Sanz, Conservative Party

Only four candidates were on the ballot in Scarborough and Whitby at the last general election in 2019, while there were also eight candidates in 2017.

While polls currently predict a considerable victory for the Labour Party across the UK and in Scarborough and Whitby, nationally one in eight people have said they are still undecided about who they will vote for.

Dr Anna Sanders, a lecturer in British politics at the University of York, previously told the LDRS that the key factor in the election result will be turnout, or how many people vote.

In previous years, turnout has been between 65 – 68 per cent in Scarborough and Whitby, which is close to the national average in recent general elections.

For more information and advice on voting in the general election, North Yorkshire Council has a dedicated online page here: https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/your-council/elections-and-voting/how-vote.