Voting

About this service

You need to register to be able to vote. You can register to vote by downloading the application form below.

You should register to vote if you are:

Citizens of EU member states can not vote in UK Parliamentary elections and must fill in a separate form to vote in the European elections.

Once you have registered to vote, your details will be added to the electoral register. This is a list of people who are registered to vote which is maintained by the elections team at your local authority.

How you can vote

You can vote in person, by post or ask some one to vote on your behalf.

In person at the polling station

When you have registered to vote, a poll card will be sent to you a few days before the election. You do not need the poll card to vote, this is simply a courtesy to tell you where your polling station is and when the polling station will be open. All electors are allocated to a polling station.

You will be asked for your name and address, which will then be found in the Register of Electors, to confirm that you are eligible to vote. The ballot paper will be stamped to prove it is genuine, and then given to you to mark secretly, before placing it in the ballot box. If you have a postal vote, you will NOT be allowed to vote in the station as you will already have had a ballot paper sent to you.

Why is my name marked in the register and why is my number written down before I am allowed to vote?

The register lists all those people who are eligible to vote. The copy of the register which is used in the polling station is already marked up to show who has a postal vote, to ensure that they are not given another ballot on polling day. The poll clerk on duty will put a small mark against your name to indicate that you have voted, so that you cannnot vote more than once, and also to ensure that nobody can try and vote at the station by pretending to be you.

The law requires every ballot paper to have a unique serial number. The law also requires that a record is kept of the serial number of the ballot paper that is issued to every elector. That is why the staff in the polling station record the serial number of the ballot paper against the electoral number.

At the close of poll the documents which list the serial numbers of the ballot papers and the list of to whom they have been issued are sealed in special packets and cannot be opened unless a court order to do so is obtained.

The reason this is done is to enable checks should a legal challenge be made to the result of the election. It is possible in UK law for the result of an election to be challenged through what is known as an election petition. It is possible for the eligibility of an elector's right to vote be challenged in the courts after an election. If the challenge is successful the court can order that the ballot paper of the elector be retrieved, the vote discounted and the result of the election changed to reflect the removal of these votes from the total.

This is a very unusual occurence and there are legal processes in place to protect the identity of electors and how thay have voted from being discovered except in circumstances when a court orders that it should be done. there is only a very short period in which a challenge can be made, 21 days from the date of the election, and if no challenge is made in that period all documents are subsequently destroyed.

By Post

Anyone can apply for a postal vote for all elections, or for a particular election - you do not need a reason. The ballot paper can be sent to your home address, or to any other address where you will be staying on the day of the election. We can send your ballot papers to addresses abroad, but we cannot guarantee that there will be enough time to send these back before the election, particulary outside of Europe. In these cases, it may be better to appoint a proxy on your behalf.

By Proxy

A proxy is someone who goes to your polling station and votes on your behalf. You are required to give a reason why you require a proxy, and if you choose to vote by proxy for all future elections you will need to provide evidence to back this up.

The last time for the receipt of applications for proxy votes is 5pm six working days before polling day. New legislation has introduced a provision to appoint an emergency proxy after this deadline. Please contact the Election Services Team if you need to do this or complete the form below.

Contact Details

Email: elections@wiltshire.gov.uk
Telephone: 0300 456 0112
Fax: 01249 463481
Postal Address:
Wiltshire Electoral Services
Monkton Park
Chippenham
SN15 1ER

Last updated: 11 November 2009