Eligibility to Vote

To be eligible to vote, your name must appear on the electoral or voters’ register, sometimes called the 'voters' roll'. Please follow the links to obtain further information. If you have any query on eligibility to be a voter please contact the electoral services office.

Generally, to be included in the voters’ register a person must be:

• resident in the borough on the date of the application

• a British, Irish or Commonwealth citizen or a citizen of another member state of the European Union (see below)

• aged 18 years old and over (or will become 18 during the life of the register)

If you are a foreign national and wish to check whether you are eligible to apply to be registered, click on the link to Eligible Nationalities on the left which lists all British Commonwealth and European Union states.

Students may register at both their home address and their college or university address. It is not an offence to register twice, but it is an offence to vote more than once in the same election.

Special Arrangements

Special arrangements apply to the following categories:

British citizens living abroad can vote at UK and European Parliamentary Elections but not local government elections.

If you were registered to vote in the UK within the last 15 years then you can apply to be an overseas voter. It is important to note that you must apply to the last council with whom you were registered before moving abroad.

If you were too young to register when you left the UK, your parent or guardian must have been registered.

Service personnel and their spouse have the choice of registering annually as an ordinary voter, or by way of a service declaration. (Their children can only register as an ordinary elector). There is currently a proposal to extend service declarations from annually to every three years.

Crown servants or British council employees working outside the UK can still register to vote. The spouse of a crown servant or British council employee accompanying them during their employment abroad can also register under these arrangements.

Homeless people may register at the address or place where they spend a substantial part of their time either during the day or at night.

Remand prisoners may register at the institution where they are currently resident or at the address they would have been resident or have previously lived.

Mental health patients, either voluntary or detailed (but not those detained for criminal activity) may register at the institution where they are currently resident or at the address they would have been resident or have previously lived.