Guidance for Returning Officers - Assistance with voting for disabled voters

After each election you should evaluate the equipment and support provided in polling stations and how you communicated with voters about their needs and what they could expect. This is important to demonstrate your compliance with your PSED as a continuing duty.

To help with your evaluation activities, we have provided a template survey with examples of the types of questions you could ask polling station voters who required additional assistance when voting. The survey can be used to gather their feedback on their experience of voting and the support that was made available. 

You should invite feedback from voters and accessibility groups on their experience of voting in polling stations, about what worked well and what didn’t, to help inform what you do to support disabled voters at future polls.

Mechanisms you could use to gather feedback include:

• providing an easy read survey at the polling station about the voting experience
• inviting voters and partnership organisations to attend focus groups to discuss their experiences of voting in the polling station
• inviting polling station staff to discuss their experience working in a polling station where specific equipment was provided, how they dealt with any difficult situations on the day, and their feedback on the training they received
• reviewing any feedback provided in reports returned by Presiding Officers and polling station inspectors
• monitoring the use of the equipment you provide in polling stations by asking polling station staff to keep a record in the polling station log book or via post poll surveys or feedback
• reviewing the way that you approached your duties under equalities legislation and the Public Sector Equality Duty with relevant local authority colleagues such as legal and EDI officers. This will ensure that any decisions are recorded appropriately, and good practice identified and embedded into your planning for future polls

To ensure you get a wide range of external feedback you should consider providing a range of options for gathering views such as support for people who struggle with written forms of communication. A good way of finding out the most appropriate approach to reaching specific groups of voters would be to ask the partnership organisations you work with what would work best for the voters they support.

The Commission is required to report on the steps taken by ROs to assist disabled people for some elections.1 In order to meet that requirement, we will ask you for data on the provision of equipment and support in polling stations which should be information you already have available to support your own planning processes.

We use our engagement and reporting work to highlight examples of good practice that emerge to support your work in ensuring voting is accessible.