03 Apr Mayoral elections 2023

Posted at 15:23h in Local Elections by

Mayoral elections  take place on Thursday May 4  in Bedford, Leicester, Mansfield and Middlesbrough.

For the first time these polls will use the first-past-the-post system, rather than the previous supplementary voting (SV) system where if any candidate obtain more than half the vote in the first round of voting they are elected immediately. But if no candidate achieved more than 50% the two candidates with the most votes go into a second-round contest. All the others are eliminated and their second-preference votes are distributed to the two remaining candidates to decide the outcome.

Wire messages for these polls will be sent in plain text (TTY) format.

For details of messages in XML format for digital products, please see the page on XML format under Delivery Methods.

Key dates and times:

  • Nominations close: Wednesday April 5.
  • Polling Day: Thursday May 4 – polling from 0700 to 2200.
  • Declarations: To be confirmed.

PA serial numbers for areas with mayoral polls will appear here:

1

2

3

4

Nominations

Nominations for each of the mayoral elections will be sent as soon as possible after they become available on the closing date.

The catchline will be topic ELECTION, keyword Nominations Mayor followed by the specific election. For example, the Bedford mayoral nominations will be catchlined: ELECTION Nominations Mayor Bedford.

The category code will be: XTA

The party order for nominations will be: Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green,, followed by minor parties ranked alphabetically by party name.

Note that, because each election is a separate entity in our system, XML format nominations and results will have different party IDs for the same parties in the 13 polls. Customers must ensure they use the IDs specific to each poll.

The message may include a historical summary of the result from the previous main election, but this is not confirmed.

Revised sets of mayoral nominations will be sent as necessary in the run-up to polling day, with a final run on the afternoon of Wednesday May 3.

Rushes

As soon as the winner is declared, a rush will be sent.

The catchline will be topic POLL,  keyword Mayor followed by the specific election and council serial number. For example, rush with the outcome of the Bedford mayoral election will be catchlined: POLL Mayor Bedford 1

The category code will be: XTJ

Fictional examples of the text:

  • Sir John James (C) elected at Bedford

Results

Detailed results will be sent after each round of voting.

They will be catchlined POLL Mayor followed by the specific election and council serial number. For example, mayoral results from Bedford will be catchlined: POLL Mayor Bedford 1

The category code will be: XTP

We will give candidates in vote order with their party, vote, vote share and possibly change since the previous elections. although this is not yet confirmed.

If a result has to be corrected, the catchline will be styled POLL Correction Mayor followed by the specific election and constituency number. Example: POLL Correction Mayor Bedford 1. Where there is a change to the winning party a rush correction will be sent, catchlined in the same way.

Party Abbreviations

Parties and abbreviations for the eight mayoral polls will appear here:

Quick Reference Table

Catchlines and category codes:

:: Nominations: ELECTION Nominations Mayor (followed by election and mayoral serial number) – XTA

:: Rush: POLL Mayor (followed by election and mayoral serial number) – XTJ

:: Result: POLL Mayor (followed by election and mayoral serial number) – XTP

:: Rush correction: POLL Correction Mayor (followed by election and mayoral serial number) – XTJ

:: Result correction: POLL Correction Mayor (followed by election and mayoral serial number) – XTP

Elections Live Coverage

All narrative copy, claims/pointers (giving indications for key councils in advance of final declarations), reaction and analysis, will run in the general news service. On the wire, these messages will use the usual editorial code: HHH

Tests

We will be sending test results ahead of the election. Fictitious candidate names and voting figures will be generated at random. Please see separate advisory for the provisional test programme.

All test material will be marked clearly as “PA Test” and the word “Test” will appear in fictional candidate names.

You MUST check before polling day that any test material has been cleared from your systems.