95% of councils sign up for "on the night" election counts

The Electoral Commission has said that 95% of councils have agreed to hold general election counts on the night of the election rather than waiting for the following day, after the government passed a new law requiring election to begin within four hours of the polls closing.

A new clause in the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act, which gained Royal Assent on 8th April,  amended the Representation of the People Act (1983) to require that the election count is conducted within four hours of the close of the polls unless in exceptional circumstances.

What constitutes “exceptional circumstances” is still the subject of consultation between the government and the Electoral Commission and no sanction for failing to start counting within four hours has been proposed. Nevertheless, the vast majority of local authorities have agreed to begin within four hours, partly in response to the 'Save our Election Night' campaign launched by 200 MPs when it became apparent that up to a quarter of local authorities were planning to delay counts until the following morning.

According to the Electoral Commisson, the following constituencies are not expected to start counting their votes until 0900 on 7 May at the earliest: Argyll and Bute, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Blyth Valley, Broadland, Buckingham, Cheltenham, Copeland, Henley, Hexham, Huntingdon, Kenilworth and Southam, Lancaster and Fleetwood, Morecambe and Lunesdale, North East Hampshire, Norwich North, Oxford West and Abingdon, Penrith and the Border, Saffron Walden, Skipton and Ripon, St Ives, Torridge and West Devon, Wansbeck, Wantage, Warwick and Leamington, Westmorland and Lonsdale