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Local election resources

On Thursday 1 May 2025, local and mayoral elections will take place in many parts of England. This will include:

  • Local government elections in England
  • Local authority mayoral elections
  • Combined authority mayoral elections
  • Combined county authority mayoral elections
  • Parish council elections

The Institute for Government has lots of backformation information setting out the different elections that are taking place across the country. You can read that here.

Registering to vote and voter IDs

The Electoral Commission have information on their website here on registering to vote, voter ID, the voting process and other key details ahead of polling day.

The deadline for registering to vote for elections taking place on Thursday 1 May is 11.59pm on Friday 11 April. There are subsequent deadlines for applying to apply by postal ballot (5pm on Monday 14 April) or applying to vote by proxy (5pm on Wednesday 23 April).

College resources – engaging with candidates and supporting democratic engagement

In the run up to last year’s mayoral and general elections, we pulled together resources to support colleges to engage with local candidates and encourage their students to get involved. Both of these documents contain information that is relevant for the upcoming local elections as well. You can find those here, alongside a helpful devolution guide.

Additionally, Democracy Classroom, a collaboration between non-partisan democracy, education, and youth organisations (supported by AoC), has created resources as part of their #ElectionCountdown campaign. They have an eight-module programme designed for key stage 5 students which provides essential guidance for any first-time voters covering voter registration, voting methods, required ID, and researching candidates and manifestos. The flexible modules suit 15-20 minute form-time sessions or can be combined for longer lessons. You can access the resources here and sign up to get more information here.

Pre-election period restrictions

It is worth being aware that the pre-election period starts three weeks before an election (Thursday 10 April) – where particular restrictions on activities that could be deemed to influence the election come into place. This is particularly relevant for civil servants or local government officers, but has implications for charities and public sector organisations in avoiding activities that could be seen to impact on the election. We discuss this in more detail in our guide, here.

If you have any questions about this then please do contact the public affairs team (public_affairs@aoc.co.uk).