Reports are coming in of incorrect guidance being issued by councils for today’s mayoral elections:

• In Birmingham, the City Council has displayed “vote for one candidate only” posters at polling stations across the city – although true for the local elections, the concurrent West Midlands mayoral election is run under the supplementary vote system, meaning you can vote for more than one candidate. The Council’s elections team says it is dealing with the mistake…
  
• A voter gets in touch to say Greater Manchester Council’s official information leaflet does not make it clear that exercising a second preference vote is optional. It reads: “You have the opportunity to cast your vote for your first and second choice candidate”…
• Meanwhile, the Cambridge and Peterborough leaflet wording is completely different: “You can have two votes on the Mayoral ballot paper, one for your first choice candidate and one, if you wish, for your second choice candidate.”

Slow clap…