Election candidate marries on polling day before casting votes with new hubby and sealing it with a kiss

AN election candidate and her hubby tied the knot today before casting their votes and sealing their union with a big X.

Sorcha Eastwood, 31, and Dale Shirlow, 34, kissed outside a polling station while still in their outfits.

Sorcha, the Alliance Party candidate for West Belfast, suffered a dog bite on the campaign trail at the weekend and spent two days in hospital.

But she was well enough for the church service and to vote at a school in Lisburn, Northern Ireland. She said: “The bite really hampered the preparations.

“It’s been a lot to do and take in but my family and Dale have been absolutely fantastic and so supportive.

“I hope it sends a strong signal to women that they can get involved in politics.”

Groom Dale said: “A few months ago I said ‘I bet you any luck we’ll have an election on the day of our wedding’.”

The couple ruled out spending their wedding night at the count. Instead they and guests will watch the results on TV at their reception.

Others voted in a train carriage at Leeming Bar, North Yorks.

Another polling station was set up in a windmill in West Blatchington, East Sussex.

Voters headed to an Audi parked in Appleton Roebuck, in York to have their say.

Early risers had to use a nearby car as a polling station when they arrived at 7.30am to find the Anfield North boxing gym shut in Liverpool.

Locals in Bridlington, East Yorks, cast their votes while resting on dustbin lids in a car park because their polling station failed to open at 7am.

Voters in Sheffield kicked up a stink after finding a polling station sign on an outdoor loo.

June Thomas, 73, and hubby Graham, 76, welcomed voters to their 4ft by 6ft broom cupboard in Winwick, Northants.

June and a presiding officer checked off ballots from the comfort of a sofa.

Nuns from the Tyburn Convent in central London quietly cast their vote at nearby Marble Arch.

At Diane Abbott’s constituency in Stoke Newington, North London, cops ordered a primary school site manager to cover up children’s drawings with brown paper.

They had sketched the Communist hammer and sickle and added slogans “the kids aren’t happy” and “we want change”.

Farmer Phil Heard, 53, cast his ballot in Okehampton, Devon, then rode off on his horse Ranger.