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All 45 seats of Dorset County Council 23 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Map of the results of the 2013 Dorset council election. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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An election to Dorset County Council took place on 2 May 2013 as part of the United Kingdom local elections.[1] 45 councillors were elected from 42 electoral divisions, which returned either one or two county councillors each by first-past-the-post voting for a four-year term of office. The electoral divisions were the same as those used at the previous election in 2009. No elections were held in Bournemouth or Poole, which are unitary authorities outside the area covered by the County Council. The election saw the Conservative Party maintain overall control of the council.[2]
All locally registered electors (British, Irish, Commonwealth and European Union citizens) who were aged 18 or over on Thursday 2 May 2013 were entitled to vote in the local elections.[3] Those who were temporarily away from their ordinary address (for example, away working, on holiday, in student accommodation or in hospital) were also entitled to vote in the local elections, although those who had moved abroad and registered as overseas electors could not vote in the local elections. It is possible to register to vote at more than one address (such as a university student who had a term-time address and lives at home during holidays) at the discretion of the local Electoral Register Office, but it remains an offence to vote more than once in the same local government election.[4]