Here is a timeline of everything that will happen during the Watford Borough Council Mayoral and Councillor elections next week:

• Wednesday May 2: Vans deliver polling screens and other materials to Watford’s polling stations ready for Thursday, May 3.

• From 12noon, Wednesday May 2: Transform sports hall of Watford Leisure Centre Central into count hall.

• 7am-10pm, Thursday May 3: Polling stations open for Watford residents to vote in the Mayoral and Watford Borough Council ward elections. Polling station staff record the names of everyone who turns up to vote, though their actual votes are secret.

• From 10pm, Thursday May 3: Ballot boxes with ballot papers arrive at Watford Leisure Centre Central.

• 10pm-2am, Friday, May 4: Council staff count and verify that number of votes in ballot boxes match number of voters recorded by polling station staff. Ballot boxes are locked in a secure location before the count begins the next day.

• 9.30am-2pm (approx.), Friday May 4: Votes counted before declaration of result is announced and Watford welcomes its new directly elected Mayor to his new job.

• 2pm onwards, Friday May 4: Votes counted for each of Watford Borough Council’s 12 wards. Results announced throughout the afternoon confirming which councillors have been elected or re-elected in each of the wards.

Watford is represented by two tiers of local government. This means that certain public services – including waste collections, street cleaning, park management, planning applications, housing, and organising elections – are managed by Watford Borough Council. Others – such as social care, schools, roads, libraries, and the fire service – fall under the remit of Herts County Council.

Watford is one of the few towns of its size in Britain to have a directly elected Mayor, where residents choose who they would like to lead their council. Watford’s last Mayoral election was in 2014, while the last county council elections were in 2017 and the last borough council elections were in 2016.

Watford Borough Council Mayoral and Councillor elections 2018 there will also be:

• 175 polling station staff

• 63 staff involved in vote counting on Friday May 4

• 429 staff overall involved in the Mayoral and borough council election process