LONDON (AP) — Tens of thousands of voters are heading to the polls Thursday in a special election in a small seaside resort just outside London that will pit a potential candidate to be the next U.K. prime minister against a collection of independents, jokers and single-issue candidates, led by a man who wears a trash can on his head.That’s not what Nigel Farage, the man who arguably did more than anyone to get Britain to vote to leave the European Union a decade ago, intended when he triggered Thursday’s special election in Clacton by quitting his seat in the House of Commons last month. When doing so, he expected to run again against candidates from Britain’s main political parties, including the governing Labour Party and the main opposition Conservative Party.Farage, who is the leader of anti-immigration party Reform UK, stood down in the hope the election could put to bed awkward questions about his finances. Farage said he would let voters judge him in a “people versus the establishment” contest. His political foes described the move as a stunt and opted against standing a candidate. Instead, Farage’s main opponent is Count Binface, a political satirist posing as a comic space alien, with a keen interest in earthly matters, including the positioning of a hand dryer in the men’s toilet in a pub in west London.