VOTERS went to the polls today to pass judgement on Labour's bid to win its first ever third term in government.

Throughout Worcestershire and Herefordshire, candidates were expecting tight finishes, with seats in Worcester, West Worcestershire and Hereford expected to be especially closely fought.

First-time voters from Royal Grammar School, Worcester, were defying the reputation of teenagers as apathetic.

"I'm excited about voting for the first time. It's part of British culture," said 18-year-old Eleanor White.

"I'll be voting Liberal Democrat. I think they've got a far better chance than they have over the last few years."

Robert Cumming, 18, was equally enthusiastic about hist first visit to the ballot box and urged everyone to vote.

"People have died to give us the right to be free and it is

fundamentally important to participate in the election," said the Tory supporter.

"I'm looking to the future and how I'm going to be affected by whichever government is chosen."

Worcester's 150 ballot boxes will be counted at St John's Sports Centre when polls close at 10pm. The result is expected at about 3am tomorrow.

The fight for power at Worcestershire's County Hall was also being decided today as the Conservative group hoped to win an extra four seats and gain overall control.

Counting of votes for all 57 seats will take place tomorrow morning, with the results announced around noon.

Buy tomorrow's Worcester News for all the drama from the night counts throughout the two counties. The county council race will be in Saturday's paper.

Fraud fear as polling cards fail to show up

A NUMBER of polling cards have not been delivered to voters in Worcester - prompting fears of potential electoral fraud.

The slips of paper are handed in at polling stations when people cast their vote.

Ballot papers for the city's 73,000 voters are hand-delivered to households by council staff, but up to 30 voters across the city say they have not yet had theirs.

Acting returning officer Philip Betts admitted they could be used by impostors to use the vote.

But he is confident they have not fallen into the wrong hands and they might not even have been printed.

"At the moment it looks as though some haphazard printing has occurred and we've only been aware of it in the last couple of days," said Mr Betts.

"Voting impersonation is a criminal offence and if someone were to use a polling card for financial fraud that is even more serious."

He said anyone who didn't have a card needed to visit their local polling station with another form of identification if they wanted to take part in the election.