Help for disabled voters

Everyone who is entitled to vote should be able to register and complete their vote without barriers.

Below are some guides that will help provide support to you or someone you know:

Registering to Vote

Before you can vote an application to be added to the electoral register must be completed.

The Electoral Commission have an easy read guide, available on this link - easy-read guide to registering to vote [PDF]
Register to vote on the government website
Contact us to request a printed copy of a large-scale registration form

Polling Stations

Our polling stations are made accessible and as many as possible are wheelchair accessible, with temporary ramps used where needed. The ramped access may be different to the main door, but this will be sign posted.

If it is difficult to access the polling station, the Presiding Officer will offer help to the voter getting into the station, or might bring a ballot paper out to that person to ensure they can fill it in.

The following equipment is available at polling stations:

An enlarged copy of the ballot paper that can be taken into the voting booth
A large-scale high-contrast poster of the ballot paper
A magnifying glass
A 'tactile voting device' to help blind and partially sighted voters to vote independently. It has embossed numbers and tab windows and can be attached to a ballot paper.
A low-level polling booth
Pencil grips
Seating for anyone who needs to rest for a brief time

If you have a disability that prevents you from completing a ballot paper on your own, you may take a companion to the polling station to help you to vote. Your companion must be a close relative (father, mother, brother, sister, spouse, civil partner; son or daughter if they are aged eighteen years or over). Before helping you, your companion must complete a simple companion declaration form at the polling station to indicate that they have recorded the vote truly and faithfully. Please ask the Presiding Officer at your polling station about this.

You can ask the Presiding Officer to help you, they are legally bound by the Requirement for Secrecy and your vote will remain secret. If you know which candidate you wish to vote for, you must instruct the Presiding Officer, in the privacy of the polling booth, to mark the ballot paper(s) on your behalf.