York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority Mayoral Election Thursday, 2 May 2024 - Prospective candidate and agent information bulletin 1

On Thursday, 2 May 2024, there will be an election to choose who will be the Mayor for York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority. The election will be held across the combined authority constituent council areas being the City of York and North Yorkshire authorities.

The Combined Authority has appointed Richard Flinton to be the Combined Authority Returning Officer (CARO) in relation to the election.

The CARO is responsible for the overall conduct of the election and for liaising with and co-ordinating the work of the Returning Officers for City of York and North Yorkshire Council.

More specifically the CARO is responsible for:

• giving notice of the election
• the nomination procedures
• the production and distribution of candidate’s election addresses to every entitled voter and ensuring that candidates and their agents comply with the requirements as to the contents of election addresses and the procedures for submitting them
• the collation of local vote totals, the calculation and the declaration of result

Invitation to prospective candidate briefing

Prospective candidates and their election agents are invited by the CARO to attend a briefing to be held on Thursday 7 March at 5pm (virtually via MS Teams) which will cover areas of important information:

• an introduction by the CARO - Richard Flinton
• an overview of the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, its role and responsibilities and the role of the Mayor (delivered by James Farrar – Interim Head of Paid Service of the Combined Authority)
• an overview of the key election processes
• detailed information about the nomination procedures, timings and requirements including the completion and delivery of the forms, and the payment of deposits to stand for election
• information relating to the technical specification requirement for those wanting to submit a candidates address for inclusion within the Candidate’s Address Booklet and the required candidate’s contribution towards the cost of printing the election address booklet

If you would like to attend this briefing, please email elections@northyorks.gov.uk.

Nomination deposits

In order to be validly nominated as a candidate, a £5,000 deposit in cleared funds will need to be submitted between the first and last dates for returning the candidate’s nomination papers. This deposit will be forfeited unless the candidate polls more than 5% of the total valid votes cast in the election.

Candidate Address Booklet

The CARO is required by law to produce a booklet that includes election addresses from candidates standing for the role of Mayor at the election and the CARO is responsible for the delivery of it by post to each person entitled to vote at the election.

The booklet enables the candidate to submit a campaign statement (election address) as to why voters should vote for them.

The CARO requires that candidates contribute to the cost of printing (but not posting) the booklet and the CARO will be obliged to decline to include any candidate’s election address where payment has not been made as required. This contribution has been set at £2,000.

Details of the procedure and content requirements for election addresses will be provided at the briefing on 7 March.

Future bulletins

Further information will be made available at the briefing mentioned above, and a bulletin will be released after that briefing including information on how to access:

• a full set of nomination papers, with accompanying information relating to the payment of monies
• full election timetable for this election
• the relevant registers of electors for this election
• a website address containing information relating to the election

Further details on this process, including when a nominee officially becomes a candidate, are available on the Electoral Commission website.

Sources of information

• the main website for the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority
• North Yorkshire council's York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority mayoral election page which will contain information for candidates and agents, electors and links to further information. This will also include statutory election notices and the results. Additional content for this page is currently in development and coming soon
• the Electoral Commission guidance on their website for standing for election, spending and donations, the campaign process, your right to attend key electoral events and after the declaration of results

CARO

Any questions for the CARO can be directed to Electoral Services, North Yorkshire Council by emailing elections@northyorks.gov.uk.

Important dates