After months of campaigning and political debate, Britain’s relationship with the European Union will be either ‘in’ or ‘out’ by tomorrow morning.
Polling stations nationwide and across Nottinghamshire will close at 10pm and votes will be collected and counted by local council area across the UK, each who will declare their own results individually.
When will we know?
The local council area results will be passed on to regional centres before being handed to the central counting centre in Manchester, where the final result will be revealed at around 7am on Friday morning.
Similarly to the Scottish referendum in September 2014, there will be greater tension than normal election nights due to the absence of exit polls, which have not been carried out by broadcasters due to concerns over their accuracy.
The final outcome will be announced by Chair of the Commission, Jenny Watson, who is the Chief Counting Officer for the referendum, and is responsible for all referendum conduct.
Who can vote?
To vote in the referendum you must be registered to vote in the UK, and be aged over 18-years-old.
You must also be:
- A British or Irish citizen living in the UK, or
- A Commonwealth citizen living in the UK who has leave to remain in the UK or who does not require leave to remain in the UK, or
- A British citizen living overseas who has been registered to vote in the UK in the last 15 years, or
- An Irish citizen living overseas who was born in Northern Ireland and who has been registered to vote in Northern Ireland in the last 15 years.
The deadline to register to vote has now passed, but you can check if you are registered by contacting your local electoral registration office, whose details can be found here.
Although polling stations will be open from 7am-10pm, people already queuing after 10pm will still be allowed to vote.
The Electoral Commission has advised people to go as early as possible to avoid queues.
The address of your polling station can be found on your poll card, or by contacting your local authority, whose details can be located here.
You are not required to have your polling card in order to vote.
The count
The count will begin immediately after the close of poll and continue throughout the night.
Sealed ballot boxes and any postal votes handed in to polling stations are collected and transported to the count venue for each of the 382 local counting areas.
The results are then collated and fed to regional counting offices in 12 electoral regions, who will then only announce their results once counts from all areas have concluded.
Unlike at a general election, where only a majority win in each constituency is required to win a seat, every vote counts, therefore the final results for Leave and Remain will creep up slowly as each region announces their figure.
At around 7am, Chief Counting Officer Jenny Watson, will reveal the result at Manchester Town Hall, although no physical counting of ballot papers is taking place there.
How can I follow the result?
Notts TV is following the count results locally and also following the outcome nationally. You can keep up to date with a live blog on our website which will run from 4am as the results start to come in.
We’ll also be posting updates on our Twitter and Facebook pages and our news programme will cover all the developments and reaction at 5.30pm, 6pm, and 7pm on Friday.
There will then be more reaction on the Notts TV Debate from 7.30pm and the news will appear again at 10pm.
Watch on Freeview Channel 7, Sky 117 and Virgin 159.
What happens next?
The answer to this is unknown, although Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to make a statement as soon as the result is declared, similarly to the one made moments after the result of the Scottish independence referendum.
