Polling stations have opened for people to cast their vote in the UK general election.<\/p>\n
Polls opened at 07:00 BST at more than 40,000 polling stations across the country, with counting starting once voting ends at 22:00 BST.<\/p>\n
A total of 650 Westminster MPs will be elected, with about 46.9 million people registered to vote.<\/p>\n
That is up from the last general election, in 2015, when there were 46.4 million registered voters.<\/p>\n
Some votes have already been cast, through postal voting, which accounted for 16.4% of the total electorate at the 2015 general election.<\/p>\n
Overall turnout in 2015, when the Conservatives won 331 out of 650 seats, was 66.4%, up from 2010.<\/p>\n
Most polling stations are in schools, community centres and parish halls, but pubs, a launderette and a school bus have been used in the past.<\/p>\n
A handful of seats are expected to be declared by midnight, with the final results expected on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Unusually, no local elections are taking place at the same time, so results might come through earlier than in recent general elections.<\/p>\n
In 2015 the first seat to declare was Houghton and Sunderland South, at 22:48 BST.<\/p>\n
To form a majority in the House of Commons one party must win 326 seats – in 2015 a Conservative majority was not confirmed until 13:34 BST.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Polling stations have opened for people to cast their vote in the UK general election. Polls opened at 07:00 BST at more than 40,000 polling stations across the country, with counting starting once voting ends at 22:00 BST. A total of 650 Westminster MPs will be elected, with about 46.9 million people registered to vote. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[7959],"yoast_head":"\n