As you may have seen in the news, a General Election has been called for Thursday 4th July by the Government. It will see 650 Members of Parliament (MPs) elected across the country, including 10 for constituencies either fully or partially in the Leeds area.

In this blog post, we will have useful information on how to register to vote, postal voting, proxy voting, finding your constituency, candidates standing and local polling station.

Registering to vote

If you want to vote in the General Election, you will need to be registered to vote. To check if you are registered and what you need to do, please visit this link: Leeds City Council – Register to Vote.

The deadline for registration is Tuesday 18th June at Midnight. You can register online or by post. If you are definitely registered, you should receive a polling card in the post.

Postal voting

If you want to vote by post, you will need to apply for a postal vote beforehand. This can be useful if you are either away from home or are abroad and want to vote.

The deadline to apply for a postal vote is 5pm on Wednesday 19th June. You will need to register to vote beforehand if you have not done so already. More information and all the useful links to apply for postal voting is available here: GOV.UK – Postal Voting.

Proxy voting

This is where you can get someone else to vote on your behalf if you cannot go to the polling station in person. Your proxy should be someone you trust to vote for the candidate you prefer.

The deadline to apply for a proxy vote is Wednesday 26th June at 5pm. You can either apply online or by post.

Before applying, you will need to ask your proxy’s permission. You will also need identification for yourself and an address and contact details for your proxy. More information is available here: GOV.UK – Apply for a proxy vote.

Finding your constituency’s candidates and polling station

Information on which candidates are standing and the parties they are representing will be made available after Friday 7th June. If you want to know who is standing, you can find out on the Electoral Commission’s website.

To find out who is standing, please click on this link: Electoral Commission – Elections in your area. Then, type in your postcode and when your address comes up in the search results, click on that and it will tell you who’s standing, as well as where your polling station is.

You should get a polling card in the post, like you would expect for local council elections. This will tell you where your polling station is.

Voter ID

For this election, as proof of identity, you will need to bring some form of photo ID with you to the polling station. Acceptable forms of Voter ID are:

  • Your passport
  • Your driving licence
  • A Blue Badge for accessible parking
  • Older Person’s Bus Pass
  • Disabled Person’s Bus Pass
  • A PASS Card

If you don’t have any of the above, you can apply for a free Voter Authority Certificate. For this, all you will need is a recent, digital photo of yourself and your National Insurance number. To apply for one, please go to this link: GOV.UK – Apply for photo ID to vote (called a ‘Voter Authority Certificate’).

The deadline to apply for a Voter Authority Certificate is on Wednesday 26th June at 5pm.

When can I vote in person?

Polling stations are open from 7am to 10pm on Thursday 4th July. To vote, you will need to bring a form of Voter ID with you.

Leep1’s campaign work

Our Leep1 team are running a campaign for the election. They aim to help adults with learning disabilities to know more about how elections work, including registering to vote and voting on the day of the election.

They will have more information about their work on Leep1’s social media accounts and website. If you would like to know more about this work, please email [email protected].