How to vote

Ways to vote

There are three ways to cast your vote.

1. In person – going to the polling station to vote on polling day.
2. By post – your council will send you a posting voting pack so you can complete your ballot paper at home and return it in the post.
3. By proxy – when you can’t go to the polling station yourself so you ask a trusted person to vote on your behalf.

If you want to vote in person you should receive a card with voting information at the address where you are registered. You don’t need the card to vote. To check that you are registered in Edinburgh and Lothian contact:

Electoral Registration Officer
Lothian Valuation Joint Board
17A South Gyle Crescent
Edinburgh EH12 9FL
Email: enquiries@lothian-vjb.gov.uk

To apply for a proxy vote, download and fill in one of the vote by proxy forms from www.gov.uk, and return it to the address above.

Who can vote?

Anyone age 16 and over living in Scotland can vote in Scottish elections. This includes citizens of other countries who live here. You just need to register to vote (see how below). You can register to vote from the age of 14, although you don’t get to vote until you are 16.

For UK-wide elections (General Elections) the rules are different. You can only vote if you are 18 or over and are British, Irish or a qualifying Commonwealth citizen, resident in the UK.

You need to be registered to vote.

You now need an accepted photo ID to vote in UK Parliamentary elections. This does not apply to Scottish elections.

Some example accepted photo IDs are: a passport, drivers licence, National Entitlement Card – you can find the full list here.

If you don’t have one of these forms of ID you can apply for a voter authority certificate.