VOTERS up and down the country will head to the polls next month for the first bumper crop of elections since the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Many contests are set to take place on May 6, dubbed 'Super Thursday', including some that were postponed from last year because of Covid-19.

In England, voters will be choosing a mixture of councillors, local mayors, regional mayors and police commissioners.

Those in Cheshire West and Chester, as well as Cheshire East, will get the chance to decide who they would like to be Police and Crime Commissioner for Cheshire – the contest was due to take place last year, but was delayed due to the pandemic.

With the voter registration deadline looming, we've taken a look at what turnout has been like across Cheshire West and Chester, and Cheshire East, in recent years.

Electoral Commission data shows that at the last PCC election in 2016, 250,400 people in Cheshire West and Chester were eligible to vote, with 51,400 of them returning valid ballot papers.

That was a turnout of 20.5 per cent, which was lower than the England average for PCC elections of 25.1 per cent.

Different figures show that 92,300 people in Cheshire West and Chester returned valid votes at the latest council elections in 2019 – 34.2 per cent of those who were eligible to take part.

Around 24,600 postal votes were included in the count.

Including rejected votes, the ballot box turnout in Cheshire West and Chester that year was 34.7 per cent.

Meanwhile in Cheshire East, Electoral Commission data shows that at the last PCC election 281,100 people in Cheshire East were eligible to vote, with 56,700 of them returning valid ballot papers.

That was a turnout of 20.2 per cent.

Different figures show that 99,800 people in Cheshire East returned valid votes at the latest council elections in 2019 – 33.5 per cent of those who were eligible to take part.

Around 33,800 postal votes were included in the count.

Including rejected votes, the ballot box turnout in Cheshire East that year was 34.1 per cent.