Code of conduct for campaigners in Northern Ireland: electoral registration, postal voting, proxy voting, Electoral ID Card and polling stations

Campaigners should be free to encourage voters to register to vote and apply to vote by post, or appoint a proxy to vote on their behalf. Campaigners should only use forms produced by the Electoral Office.

Campaigners can help to inform voters about how to participate in elections. Campaigners can encourage voters to use the online electoral registration service to register to vote. If a voter can’t register online, campaigners can also provide voters with official paper application forms to register to vote from the Electoral Office website.

Campaigners can inform voters about how to participate in elections if they cannot attend their polling place.

Campaigners can provide voters with information on how to apply for a postal or proxy vote. Campaigners can provide official absent vote application forms from the Electoral Office website.

Campaigners should ensure the Electoral Office’s address is clearly provided as the return address for all paper forms.

To ensure voters can make their own choice about how to return registration or absent vote application forms, campaigners should always clearly provide the Electoral Office’s address as the return address. This will also minimise the risk of suspicion that completed applications could be altered or inadvertently lost or destroyed. 

Campaigners must not alter any completed registration or absent vote application given to them and should send them to the Electoral Office’s address immediately wherever possible and at most within two working days of receipt.

To minimise the risk of registration or absent vote applications being refused because completed forms arrive with the Electoral Office after the statutory deadline before a poll, campaigners should ensure that there is no delay in forwarding on application forms which they receive directly. Campaigners should not delay handing in completed forms until the deadline day as this is very likely to cause problems for electors. 

Campaigners should always explain to electors the implications of applying to vote by post or appointing a proxy.

It is important that electors understand that they will not be able to vote in person on polling day if they are granted a postal vote and will not be able to vote in person if their appointed proxy has already voted on their behalf. To avoid duplication and unnecessary administrative pressures for the Electoral Office, campaigners should try to ensure that electors who are included in current postal or proxy voter lists, or have already applied for a postal or proxy vote for a particular poll, do not submit an additional application. 

Campaigners should provide electors with information about the Digital Registration Number (DRN). 

They should make electors aware that they must put their DRN on the absent vote application if they registered to vote online. Campaigners must not request the DRN from the Electoral Office on behalf of electors. Electors should request their DRN at www.eoni.org.uk/drn.

Campaigners should never encourage electors to have their postal ballot pack sent to anywhere other than the address where they are registered to vote.

Electors should take care to protect their ballot paper and postal ballot pack. Electors will be best able to protect their ballot at their home address unless there are compelling reasons why receiving the postal ballot pack at the home address (where they are registered to vote) would be impractical. Electors must state on the application form the reason why they need their postal ballot pack sent to another address. 

Electors should explore all options for people to act as a proxy – including relatives or neighbours. Given the new offence of acting as proxy for more than two domestic electors, campaigners must not be appointed as a proxy for more than two domestic electors.

To minimise the risk of suspicion that campaigners may be seeking to place undue pressure on electors, electors should not be encouraged to appoint a campaigner as their proxy. A domestic elector is an elector who lives in Northern Ireland or Great Britain.

Campaigners should advise electors that there are limits on the number of people someone can act as a proxy for. 

Campaigners should advise electors that there is a limit to the number of electors someone can be a proxy for. Someone can act as a proxy for two people. If someone votes on behalf of UK voters who live overseas, they can act as a proxy for up to four people (but only two of those can live in the UK). Campaigners should therefore advise electors to check with the person they intend to appoint as their proxy how many other electors that person is currently acting as proxy for.

Campaigners should inform voters that they need photographic identification to vote at elections in Northern Ireland. 

Campaigners can help to inform voters that they must produce a suitable form of photographic identification to vote in person at a polling station for elections in Northern Ireland. The full list of accepted photographic ID can be found on the Electoral Commission’s website.

Campaigners can also encourage voters who lack a suitable form of photographic identification to apply for an Electoral Identity Card which they can use to vote at their local polling station. Campaigners should encourage voters to check whether they have a suitable photo ID before making an application for an Electoral Identity Card. Voters can find details on how to apply for an Electoral Identity Card on the Electoral Office's website.

Campaigners should inform electors that voter ID requirements for elections in Northern Ireland are different from the requirements elsewhere in the UK.

Campaigners should be aware that the voter ID requirements for elections in Northern Ireland are different from Great Britain. They should remind voters of the requirements in Northern Ireland to help avoid any confusion at polling places on polling day. Campaigners can consult the Electoral Commission’s website for information about the voter ID requirements in different parts of the UK.

In Northern Ireland voters are required to produce one of the following forms of photographic ID before being issued with a ballot paper. It does not need to be current, but the photograph must be of a good enough likeness to allow polling station staff to confirm the identity of the holder.

• A UK, Irish or EU passport (EU passports are not accepted at UK Parliamentary elections)
• A UK, Irish or EEA driving licence
• An electoral identity card issued by the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland
• A Translink Half Fare Smartpass
• A Translink Senior Smartpass
• A Translink 60+ Smartpass
• A Translink War Disablement Smartpass
• A Translink Registered Blind Smartpass
• A Biometric Immigration Document