Go to navigation

Proxy votes

A proxy is someone who can vote on your behalf if you are unable to get to your polling station on election day. They should be someone you trust to vote the way you want to. Apart from close members of your family, a person cannot be proxy for more than two people at any one time.

Criteria

You may apply to vote by proxy for a permanent or fixed period if you are registered to vote and meet one or more of the following criteria:

  • you are a service voter;
  • you are blind or otherwise physically incapacitated;
  • you or your spouse would be prevented from voting in person due to occupation, service or employment or by reason of attendance on a course provided by an educational institution (e.g. a university or college);
  • you could not attend to vote in person without making a journey by sea or air.

Alternatively, you may apply for a proxy to vote for you for a particular election only, in which case you must specify the circumstances that prevent you from voting in person.

If you are blind or otherwise physically incapacitated, your application for a proxy vote will not require this supporting declaration and a signature from a suitably qualified person.

If you are an overseas elector, mental patient or remand prisoner there are specific arrangements allowing you to vote by proxy and you should contact the electoral registration office for further information.

It is very important not to leave it too late to apply for a proxy vote. There are legal deadlines for receipt of applications for a proxy vote before each election and these will be published by the council.

You can still vote on election day if you vote before your proxy. Contact your proxy and tell them that you will go and vote in person and that they do not need to go on your behalf.

Application form

Download the Application to vote by proxy at a particular election (pdf 78KB) or email Electoral Services to ask for one. Please remember to include your full name and address. To use the download facility, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have this on your computer, please use our advice page.

Postal proxy voting

If your proxy cannot attend your polling station in person for any reason on the day of election, they can apply to vote by post. Download the Application for proxy to vote by post (pdf 56KB) or contact Electoral Services to request a copy of the appropriate application form.

Cancelling your proxy vote

If your proxy has applied to vote you cannot vote in person at the polling station. However, you can write a letter or email and cancel your absent vote arrangements. There will be a deadline to receive that cancellation for the next election. All cancellation requests are acknowledged and confirmed by letter to both you as the elector and your proxy.

If the cancellation letter is received after the election deadline, your proxy vote will stay in place but your absent voting arrangements will be cancelled for future elections.

If you wish to change your proxy vote to a postal vote, you will need to confirm this in writing.

 

For more information contact Electoral Services by telephone: 01634 332030 / Fax 01634 332416 or by email: electoralservices@medway.gov.uk

Write to: Electoral Services, Medway Council, Gun Wharf, Dock Road, Chatham, Kent ME4 4TR

Rate this page: 
Send this page to a friend: Send

Send a link to the Proxy votes page to a friend

  4. Please answer the question below to ensure your form gets through safely to Medway Council. It is to verify that you are a real person and not an automated internet spam programme.