TODAY the nation goes to the polls for the third time in two years, seven weeks after Prime Minister Theresa May called a snap general election.

The polls open throughout the county from 7am to 10pm and Wiltshire’s 365,358 eligible voters are being encouraged to cast their vote at one of the hundreds of polling stations throughout the county.

Details of all the candidates across the four constituencies covered by the Salisbury Journal and Forest Journal patches have been published by this newspaper in recent weeks.

Those competing for the Salisbury seat have faced a series of questions on key issues from Brexit and national security, to education and the NHS.

People do not need to take their polling card with them to vote, but it does help to speed-up the process.

Postal votes must be received by 10pm today at either the Monkton Park office in Chippenham or any polling station in the correct constituency.

Of the five parliamentary constituencies in Wiltshire, the Journal covers three: Salisbury, Devizes, and South West Wiltshire.The Forest Journal covers the New Forest West constituency.

The count will start at around 1am tomorrow and the Journal will be covering it live throughout the night as the results come in.

Our live blog will be available online at salisburyjournal.co.uk, with full results and reaction in next week’s paper. The final declaration of local results is likely to be at some point between 4am and 5am on 9 June 9.

Carlton Brand, Wiltshire’s returning officer and Wiltshire Council corporate director, said: “We’re ready for the big day and seeing all the work and prep we’ve done over the last six weeks or so come to fruition. We hope to have a good turn out and our staff are looking forward to seeing everyone at the polls.”

Candidates

Salisbury - Tom Corbin (Lab) John Glen (Con), Brig Oubridge (Green), Dean Palethorpe (Ukip), King Arthur Pendragon (Ind), Paul Sample (Lib)

Devizes: Chris Coleman (Lib), Emma Dawnay (Green), Jim Gunter (Wessex Regionalist), Timothy Page (Ukip), Claire Perry (Con), Imtiyaz Shaikh (Lab)

South West Wiltshire: Trevor Carbin (Lib), Andrew Murrison (Con), Laura Pictor (Lab) Liam Silcocks (Ind), Chris Walford (Green)

New Forest West: Jo Graham (Lab) Des Hjerling (Pirate) Janet Richards (Green) Terry Scriven (Lib), Desmond Swayne (Con).