Dogs, snow and a polling station in a car boot among unusual voting day sights
Published: 12:31, 06 May 2021
Updated: 13:50, 06 May 2021
Unusual sights including snow, a group of nuns travelling to the polls, and several snaps of dogs at polling stations have captured the interest of voters on election day.
Voters were casting their ballots as polling stations were operating under coronavirus restrictions across Great Britain.
Polling stations opened at 7am on Thursday for local council elections across England, as well as the London mayoral election, and the Hartlepool parliamentary by-election.
Here are the most unusual sights as the polls opened.
In Oxford, voter Toby Porter cast his ballot in a car boot after the church warden opening his polling station “overslept apparently”.
According to Oxford City Council, the building – Oxford Centre for Mission Studies – was open within 15 minutes.
“We found it funny. Everyone was enjoying the novelty,” Mr Porter told the PA news agency, adding that around a dozen people voted in the car.
In Dulwich Village, London, a group of nine dogs were spotted outside a polling station in a large show of support for the #DogsInPollingStations trend.
Four-month-old puppy Bertie joined the dogs-in-polling-stations trend for the first time.
Mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan took his dog Luna to his London polling station, where his wife cast her vote in the local and London mayoral elections.
Mr Khan had already voted by post.
A group of five Sisters from the Carmelite Monastery in Dysart, Fife, cast their vote in the Scottish Parliamentary election.
Voting took place at a very colourful polling station in the Bank View Cafe in Sheffield.
Voters going to polling stations on Thursday were being encouraged to take their own pen or pencil and wear a face covering due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
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