Polling stations in Ross-on-Wye have opened, as well as theses across the rest of the country, for the referendum on the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union which is taking place today, Thursday, June 23rd, 2016. The polling stations opened at 7am and will close at 10pm.

The count will take place through the night with the results expected to be known about nine hours later.

For the count, the UK has been divided into 382 counting areas which will first verify each ballot, allowing each area to announce the turn-out. The counting will then begin.

These results will then be collated and fed by local counting officers to regional counting officers in 12 electoral regions, who will only announce their results when all the areas have concluded their counts.

Unlike at a general election, when MPs only needs to win a majority in their constituency to win the seat, every vote counts – which means that the final results for Leave and Remain will creep up slowly as regions make their declarations.

The result will be declared by Jenny Watson, the chairman of the Electoral Commission and the referendum’s chief counting officer at Manchester Town Hall, although no physical counting of ballot papers is taking place there.