EA Bulletin: 387 Scotland

Once nominations close on 1 April, and you know the details of the candidates standing for election in your area, you should re-visit your risk register and review your plans accordingly, including any arrangements you have made regarding candidate security.  

As mentioned in Bulletin 379, you should make arrangements to provide the police with the contact details for all candidates standing for election.  This will enable them to provide up-to-date security information and advice directly to candidates.

With the publication of the Statement of Persons Nominated, you should also review and remove any historic election notices still available on your website, to prevent any confusion and help to ensure any previous candidates’ personal details are not still available.

As always, if you have any issues or need any support, please contact the Commission's Scotland team at [email protected].  

As highlighted in Bulletin 386, the final date for new parties, or new names, descriptions or emblems, to be added to the register was 30 March 2026. However, we can now confirm that all changes to the register of political parties prior to the close of nominations for the 7 May polls have now been processed and updated to the register.

We have created a summary of updates or changes to party names, descriptions or emblems made since 20 March 2026 below:  

Updates registered in all of Great Britain  

Deregistered parties:  

Alba Party  

Party emblem zip file  

The most up to date version of the zip file containing image files of all party emblems currently on the register can be downloaded through the link on this webpage. This was last updated on 30 March 2026.  

Registering to vote  

The new ITR No Fixed Address registration form (ITR-N-S) received ministerial approval on 30 March. The form has been updated to include those patients detained in a mental health hospital in relation to criminal conduct who were enfranchised under the Representation of the People Act 1983 Remedial (Scotland) Order 2025. 

Patients in mental health hospitals are entitled to be registered at their home address or by means of a declaration of local connection:

• at the address in Scotland at which they would be living if they were not detained, or if they cannot give such an address;
• at an address in Scotland where they used to live before they were detained, or;
• if they cannot give any address as described above or can only give an address at which they are prevented from returning to live because of a court order, at the mental health hospital as appropriate

We have published some formats of the new ITR-N-S form for use by EROs on the Registration forms and letters webpage. The new versions also reflect the increase in age for declaration of local connection for looked after children from under 16 to under 21. We will publish the Word templates as soon as possible.

The deadline to register to vote ahead of the Scottish Parliament election is 20 April 2026

Postal and proxy votes

Those detained in a mental health hospital in relation to criminal conduct who were enfranchised under the Remedial Order 2025 cannot vote in person and should arrange to:

• apply for a postal vote by completing the Application for a postal vote form. The deadline is 5pm on Tuesday 21 April
• apply for a proxy vote by completing the Application to vote by proxy at a particular election form. The deadline is 5pm on Tuesday 28 April

Where someone detained misses the standard deadline for arranging an absent vote they can apply for an emergency proxy vote until 5pm on the day of the poll. We will share this form as soon as possible 

As introduced in EA Bulletin 383, two new emergency proxy forms are now available on our website. These forms have also been shared with EMS suppliers.  

• Application to vote by emergency proxy for medical companions at a Scottish Parliament election – this is a new form that allows electors to appoint an emergency proxy if they are accompanying someone receiving medical care or treatment on the date of a poll
• Application for an emergency proxy change - this form replaces the previous Application to change an existing proxy at a Scottish council election form, to cover both Scottish Parliament and council elections in one form

Voter facing information is available at Emergency proxy vote | Electoral Commission 
 

You may be aware that last week on 25 March the UK Government published the findings of the Rycroft Review, the independent review into countering foreign financial influence and interference in UK politics.  

The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government gave a ministerial statement in the House of Commons, on publication of the report.  There was also a written ministerial statement. This set out the Government’s intention to immediately implement two of the recommendations, with legislation to follow:  

• an annual £100,000 cap on total political donations and regulated transactions made by each overseas elector, and  
• a moratorium on political donations made using cryptoassets, of any amount.

The intention is for these measures to apply retrospectively to any donations received from 25 March 2026 onwards. This includes candidates at May’s elections.

We are working urgently to understand the implications of this change in order to provide advice and support for you, as well as parties and campaigners, as soon as possible. 

Ahead of the elections on 7 May, we are running our ‘Your Vote is Yours Alone’ campaign in partnership with Crime stoppers to raise awareness of, and help prevent, electoral fraud.

We have produced a suite of resources which highlight what constitutes electoral fraud, with the aim of empowering people to protect their vote and report any concerns to Crime stoppers. You can help to prevent electoral fraud and raise awareness by sharing our resources, which are available to download from our website.  

These resources provide information on both voting at a polling station and by post, and are available in the following formats:

• videos
• posters
• leaflets
• online banners
• template social media posts and images 
   

As you know, at each set of elections, the Commission collects key administrative data from Electoral Registration Officers and Returning Officers. This data provides important evidence to support our work in reporting on elections across the UK.  

We will collect the data using our usual data portal. From Friday 8 May you will be able to log on to the data portal to fill in data. You will receive an email to your electoral services email address with details on how to log on/reset your password on 8 May.  

The deadline for completing this data will be Friday 5 June.  

For full details on the data we are collecting, please see the complete list. There are separate tabs for the core administrative data and the optional voter ID data. If you have any questions about the data collection, please contact [email protected].

Gathering feedback

Polling station staff survey  

We are carrying out a survey of polling station staff to collect feedback about their polling day experiences. We would appreciate your help in highlighting the survey to your polling station staff.  

There will be two ways for staff to access the survey:  

• The polling station handbook (hard copy and digital) features a QR code which staff can use a smart phone to scan to access the survey.  

• We will provide a link to the online survey closer to polling day which you can circulate to your polling station staff. In both cases, the link to the survey will go live on the afternoon of polling day. If you have any queries about the survey, please contact [email protected].

Feedback from electoral administrators  

We would also like feedback from administrators and Returning Officers responsible for running the polls. This not only informs our post-election reporting but will also help us to improve how we support you in delivering well-run elections in the future. As usual, we will provide a link to the survey closer to polling day. If you have any queries about the feedback survey please contact [email protected].