For the 2026 English local elections, the government has tried to make voting as easy and appealing as possible.
An experimental voting hub has even been set up inside a Milton Keynes shopping centre, so shoppers can nip in and cast their ballot amid their retail therapy.
But for some residents of Whitley Bay, visiting the polling place might come with a dose of mortal dread – and not necessarily because of the quality of candidates.
When election day rolls around, the cemetery office in the Northumberland seaside town turns into a voting station.
This isn’t the first time locals have been asked to wander through the graves to participate in democracy. The office was used for the same purpose in the 2024 general election.
Pictures taken at the site today suggest voters, thankfully, have not been too creeped out by the prospect of being confronted by a ghoulie to make the journey over.
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And they now have another reason to visit the graveyard, too.
Last year, rugby fans rediscovered the final resting place of Ernest William Taylor – also known as Little Billie – who was a legend of the game in the late 19th century.
He captained the English national team seven times between 1894 and 1899, and earned the nickname ‘Prince of Half-backs’.
The BBC reported in August that the ‘run-down’ gravestones of Taylor and his wife Mary Frances in Whitley Bay cemetery had been sent to be restored.
Other, less spooky polling places are available in the north-east.
Some lucky residents of Sunderland will get the opportunity to vote at the Fulwell Windmill, the only working windmill in the region.
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