Guidance for Returning Officers administering a Scottish Parliament election

The deadline for making changes to existing absent voting arrangements or cancelling an absent vote is 5pm, 11 working days before the poll. 

A person who is sent their postal vote early in the election timetable may receive it before these dates but subsequently decide they no longer wish to vote by post. They are still able to make changes to their absent voting arrangements to take effect at the election as long as their request is received by the deadline for either changes or cancellations and they have not yet returned their postal ballot paper. You will need to have a system in place that will allow you to promptly identify if a postal ballot paper has already been returned. 

An elector who has already returned their completed postal ballot paper(s) can still make a request to make changes to their absent vote arrangement but these changes will not take place until any future poll.

The exception to this is where the ballot paper has been returned as spoilt or lost before the deadline has passed.1 If the ballot paper has been returned as spoilt or lost before the deadline for changes has passed, then the elector may still make changes to the absent vote arrangements for the poll at which the ballot paper was issued.

This is also the case for an elector voting by proxy, where their proxy has a postal vote and has already voted on behalf of the elector by returning their completed postal vote.2

It is the return of any postal ballot paper that is relevant in determining whether or not an elector can make changes to their postal voting arrangements to take effect at the elections.

The ERO will administer the changes to any absent vote arrangements, and they must notify you in time to take effect at the election, whenever they have granted:3

• a postal vote cancellation
• a change from postal to proxy
• a change from proxy to postal
• an application for a postal ballot paper to be sent to a different address
• a cancellation of a proxy appointment

You should let the ERO know when postal ballot papers will be dispatched and the final deadline for cancellations and changes, and liaise with them to decide how any requests for changes to absent voting arrangements and information on returned postal ballot papers will be exchanged, so that:

• the ERO can check if a postal ballot paper has been returned
• the ERO knows whether or not they can allow a request for changes to absent voting arrangements to take effect for the election
• you can cancel the postal ballot paper(s) if the request has been allowed

You will need to retrieve any ballot papers that have been received before the absent vote deadline and subsequently cancelled by the elector. For more information see our guidance on the retrieval of cancelled postal votes.