The Elections Act 2022 has now passed into law and contains important measures affecting voting and elections at UK wide polls such as UK Parliamentary elections. They do not affect Scottish Parliamentary or Local Government elections.
The biggest change for voters is the introduction of the requirement to show photographic ID to vote in person at polling stations, such as a passport or driving license.
Use our Voter ID page to find out more
There are some other changes brought in by the Elections Act 2022:
Improving the accessibility of elections
Information is available relating to accessibility of elections.
European Union (EU) citizen’s voting and candidacy rights
EU citizens will no longer automatically be entitled to register, vote, or stand for election for UK wide polls.
Two groups of EU citizens will keep these rights:
- Qualifying EU citizens who come from countries which have reciprocal agreements with the UK (currently this is Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, and Spain)
- EU citizens with retained rights, who were living in the UK before 1 January 2021 (before the UK left the EU)
Postal and proxy voting
- It is recommended that you post your postal vote back using a Royal Mail post box.
- If you miss the post, you may hand it in at a polling place on election day. You will be required to complete a form when doing this. If you do not complete the form, your postal vote will be rejected and your vote will not be counted.
- You may also hand in your postal vote to a designated Council office (Town House reception, Broad Street, AB10 1FY). This must be done within office hours. You will be required to complete a form when doing this. If you do not complete the form, your postal vote will be rejected and your vote will not be counted.
- You will only be allowed to hand in a maximum of 6 postal votes (your own plus 5 others). If you hand in, or are suspected of handing in, more postal votes than permitted at the election, all postal votes will be rejected and will not be counted.
- Political parties and campaigners are prohibited from handing in postal votes. It is an offence for a political campaigner to handle postal voting documents that have been issued to another person UNLESS the person is the spouse, civil partner, parent, grandparent, brother, sister, child or grandchild of the campaigner, OR the person receives regular care from the campaigner including where the campaigner is employed or engaged by an organisation which provides care for people.
- A political campaigner is defined as a candidate at an election, someone who is an election agent at the election, someone who is a subagent at the election, someone who is employed or engaged by a candidate at an election for the purposes of that election, someone who is a member of a registered political party carrying out activities designed to promote a particular outcome at the election and/or someone employed or engaged by a political party in connection with party political activities.
- You will only be able to act as a proxy for a maximum of 4 people. Of these 4, the maximum number who can be ‘domestic electors’ (voters living in the UK not overseas voters) is 2
- Currently when you vote by post you are required to refresh your signature every 5 years, this will change to every 3 years for UK-wide polls, however remain 5 years for Scottish and Local Government elections.
British citizens overseas ‘Votes for Life’
Changes to overseas electors' rights include:
- The 15-year limit on voting for British citizens living overseas will be removed
- Going forward any British citizen, who was previously registered to vote in the UK or who previously lived in the UK, will be able to register to vote regardless of how long they have lived abroad
- The renewal period for overseas electors will be changing from yearly to every 3 years
Further information
More information is available about the Elections Act 2022