Voters in Renfrewshire throughout Scotland will head to the polls for local council elections on Thursday.
Some might be voting for the first time, while others will have exercised their right on many an occasion - either way it's helpful to know how the electoral system works.
Council areas are divided into wards, with each ward electing three or four councillors.
Local government elections are conducted via the single transferable vote (STV) method - a form of proportional representation used in Scottish council elections since 2007 - which ultimately means that you rank the candidates on the ballot paper in order of preference.
Instead of using a cross, candidates are numbered in the order of a voter's choice, so one for first choice, two for second choice, and so on, with voters preferencing as many or as few as they like. As votes transfer, there is no need for tactical voting.
"You cannot 'harm' your first preference candidate by marking later preferences," Ballot Box Scotland, an elections and polling data website, says.
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It then advises: "It’s important to use as many preferences as you can, because it might make the difference between someone you like being elected over someone you don’t.
"Later preferences only matter if the candidate your vote is with is elected or eliminated."
In the STV system, a candidate needs a minimum number of votes to be elected, which is called the quota.
If this doesn't happen based on first choice votes, the candidate with the lowest number of votes drops out.
Those who voted for this candidate have their vote transferred to the second choice.
If a candidate achieves the required percentage, they are elected. Any surplus votes are redistributed among the other candidates based on second choices.
The process is repeated until all councillors have been elected.
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