Essex County Council draws 432 Local Elections 2026 Candidates

Voting opened across Essex at 07:00 BST on Thursday, with 432 local elections 2026 candidates standing for the Essex County Council contest. Nearly 1.4 million registered voters are eligible to take part as all 78 seats on the council go to the ballot.

The scale of the contest makes this the largest county council election in Essex since 2021, with candidates drawn from 14 different parties and some standing as independents. Boundary changes and three extra council seats have altered the contest since the last election.

Essex County Council seats

All 78 seats on Essex County Council are being contested. That includes voters across the county, where the results will determine who fills every seat on a council described in the source material as one of the biggest in England.

Last year's county council elections were postponed, which pushed this round into a larger contest than usual. The result is a field of 432 candidates, far beyond a simple head-to-head race in many divisions.

Thurrock and Southend-on-Sea

In Thurrock, every seat is up for election. In Southend-on-Sea, a third of seats are being contested. Six district councils also have a third of their seats up for election, adding another layer for voters in those areas.

Basildon, Brentwood, Epping Forest, Harlow, Rochford and Colchester will each have one seat in every ward contested. Voters there will get one ballot paper for the county and another for their district council, so the same trip to the polling station covers two separate races.

Polling stations in Essex

Anyone who has not chosen to vote by post or by proxy needs to go to a polling station to vote. Voters do not need to bring the polling card received in the post, but they will need to show photo ID when they arrive.

For voters, the immediate step is simple: check whether they are voting in person, bring photo ID if they are, and use the correct ballot papers for the county and, where relevant, the district council contest. The count will then show how the record field of candidates translates into control of the 78-seat council.