Polls open in UK general election
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Polls have opened in the UK general election for 2019 with tens of thousands of people in the Highlands heading to vote for their preferred candidate.
The Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross constituency saw five candidates enter the race to take up a seat in the Houses of Commons.
The Labour Party candidate is Cheryl McDonald, the SNP fielded Karl Rosie, the Scottish Conservatives and Unionist Party chose Andrew Sinclair, Sandra Skinner was on the Brexit Party ticket and the Liberal Democrats are represented by Jamie Stone.
Polling stations opened at 7am and will close at 10pm. The constituency’s 89 ballot boxes will then be sealed and transported to the official count at Inverness Leisure centre.
Simultaneously, votes from the two other Highland constituencies of Ross, Skye and Lochaber and Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey will be tallied at the same venue.
The count will be overseen by Highland Council chief executive Donna Manson and a team largely comprising 18 top staff whose roles range from managing the counting to communications.
Dozens of others will be employed with the physical transporting and counting of the ballots, not to mention those at polling stations overseeing the process there.
Voters will have the choice of dozens of polling stations from Kinlochbervie village hall to John O’Groats and all the way south to Alness on the Cromarty Firth.
Mrs Manson has already called on the public to take part in the election, saying “your vote matters.”
Clear instructions on voting will be on display in every polling booth and trained polling station staff will be on hand to answer any questions.
Postal voters who have missed the post are reminded that they can hand in their general election postal ballot papers to any of the Highland polling stations up until 10pm today.
To check where your local polling station is people can visit the council website.
