IT'S D-DAY! Tens of thousands of people across our region were today preparing to cast their vote in the crucial local government elections.

In York, North Yorkshire and East Yorkshire, voters are having their say on who will run their councils for the next four years.

The whole of City of York, Selby District, Ryedale District, Hambleton District, and East Riding of Yorkshire councils have been up for re-election, along with a third of Harrogate Borough Council.

Thousands of postal votes have already been cast, and polling stations across the region were opening this morning for a mammoth day of democracy in action.

The new anti-fraud measures in the postal voting system have caused problems in some parts of the country, in particular, raising concerns over staff training and the machines' ability to properly count the votes.

But a City of York Council spokeswoman said things had gone smoothly here. She said: "We are using a software application that checks a stored signature and date of birth against the ones returned on the statement that accompanies the postal vote.

"The software was used in a pilot in the London Borough of Newham for the 2006 elections.

"Postal voting has been going very smoothly so far - we are not aware of any specific problems and have not had any suspicious applications."

In York, 47 seats are up for grabs, meaning a party needs 24 to win control of the council. In Selby, there are 41 seats, making 21 the magic figure. Ryedale has 30 councillors and an elected chairman, while East Riding of Yorkshire has 67.

In Hambleton though, almost 20,000 households have been told not to bother voting - because there's no point.

Of the district's 44 council seats, 23 are uncontested, as the number of candidates did not exceed the number of vacancies for that ward.

The remaining 21 seats are up for grabs today, with 39 candidates in the running.


Keep up with results

THIS year, for the first time, most of our local election counts are taking place on Friday, instead of the traditional Thursday night.

The only exception to this will be results for East Riding of Yorkshire Council.

The Press tomorrow will, therefore, contain coverage of polling day and the East Riding results, but not the results for York, Selby, Ryedale, Hambleton or Harrogate.

Those results will be posted live on this website as they are announced throughout tomorrow.

See The Press on Saturday for all the results in detail, and for comprehensive analysis and reaction.