Emergency proxy voting

In some circumstances, an emergency proxy may be granted by the Electoral Registration Officer if you are unable to vote in person due to the following:

• In the case of a medical condition, illness or disability arising after the deadline for ordinary proxy applications
• Are a mental health patient detained under civil powers
• If your occupation, service or employment means you cannot go to the polling station in person and you only become aware of this after the deadline for ordinary proxy applications
• For Scottish local council elections, an elector may be able to change their proxy if their appointed proxy’s circumstances have changed and they cannot reasonably be expected to vote at the polling station.
• If you are a Scottish prisoner serving a sentence of 12 months of less (Scottish Parliament and Scottish Local Government elections only)
• If you meet any of the conditions relating to emergency proxies on the grounds of voter identification after the deadline to apply for a Voter Authority Certificate or Anonymous Elector’s Document at UK parliamentary by-elections from 4 May 2023.
• If the photo ID that you intended to use at a UK Parliamentary General election becomes unavailable after 5pm, on the sixth working day before the election and you don’t have any other form of acceptable photo ID that you can use

Both you and your proxy must be registered and eligible to vote.

Further information on emergency proxies can be found on the Electoral Commission’s website.

Application forms for emergency proxies can be found in our list of applications below.  Details of how to return your form can be found in our ‘How to return your application form to us’ section at the bottom of this page.

For an emergency proxy you can apply up until 5pm on the day of the poll.

How to return your application form to us

You can return completed application forms to any of our offices by post or by email to [email protected] – we can only accept black & white clear scanned images under 50MB (51200kB).  We cannot accept photographs of application forms. Address details can be found on our forms or here

If you are having any difficulties with the completion of the form or require further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact the Electoral Registration Officer on 0800 393 783 or e-mail [email protected]