As part of the election coverage, a survey of the candidates in the three constituencies shows what details they chose to reveal as part of their nomination to be a candidate.

Recent changes in the law allow candidates to choose not to tell the voters where they live on the ballot paper or make their address public on the notice of poll. They must state the constituency in which their home address is situated or, if they live outside the UK, the country in which you live. Indeed, they do not even need to be registered to vote any where.

The ten names of the electors who signed the nomination papers are published. Each has to be on the electoral roll in the constituency but their electoral number and polling district is not disclosed . All these details are only disclosed to the Returning Officer and the other candidates.

Across Brighton and Hove, the only candidates who have chosen to avail themselves of this privilege are Celia Barlow (Labour Party) in Hove, Soraya Anne Kara (Citizens for Undead Rights and Equality) in Pavilion and, in Kemp Town, Juliet Williams (Liberal Democrats.) All live in the constituency and their agents, of course, have their addresses made public.

As to polling itself, the ballot is secret only to the extent that the voter’s ballot paper is shrouded by the curtain where the voter pencils in the Cross to mark his/ her vote. Every ballot paper has a number and the polling staff then stamp each one when it is handed to the voter. This can then be tallied with the docket from which the paper was removed. All ballot papers are kept for a year.

In theory, therefore, your vote can be traced.

Some elections are decided on the turn of a coin or just a handful of votes. In Kemp Town in 1964 , Denis Hobden was elected MP for Brighton Kemptown by a margin of seven votes. And some people still crack that joke: “I voted for Denis -- in the morning and in the evening!"

Polling is between the hours of 7 am and 10 pm.