Laundromat, car dealership, grotto and pubs used in UK vote

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Wensleydale Railway employee Teresa Chapman is pictured with the Polar Express in the background, next to a polling station in a railway carriage as voters go to the polls, in Leeming Bar, North Yorkshire, England, Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019. Britain is holding an early election in wintry December, with a number of strange locations put in use as polling places. Among the places where Britons cast their ballots Tuesday were a car dealership, a laundrette, a Christmas grotto and of course some pubs. There were a few problems, including flooding at one location. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

LONDON – Some citizens in the English city of Oxford could have been forgiven for bringing their dirty laundry with them when they went to their polling station to cast their vote in Britain's first December general election in nearly a century.

That's because the Ace Laundrette was pressed into service as a polling station in the early election called by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a bid to break the country's Brexit stalemate. Most British elections take place in the spring.

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There were plenty of odd polling locations Thursday throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland,

In the town of Hampshire, people exercising their democratic privilege could also have checked out automobiles for sale at the Petersfield Used Car Centre. And in the West Midlands town of Dudley, a rather bare converted shipping container was designated as a voting booth.

More fun was to be had in the picturesque pubs used as voting centers in the countryside. The election also had more traditional polling locations, such as town halls and churches.

Given the time of year, voters couldn't escape Christmas. In the southwest England town of Minehead, a Santa's grotto was used for voting.

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