The European Union Referendum (Conduct) Regulations 2016

Manner of voting in the referendum

71.—(1) This regulation applies to determine the manner of voting in Northern Ireland of a person entitled to vote in the referendum.

(2) The person may vote in person at the polling station allotted to him or her under Part 2, unless the person is entitled to vote by post or by proxy in the referendum.

(3) The person may vote by post if the person is entitled to vote by post in the referendum.

(4) If the person is entitled to vote by proxy in the referendum, the person may so vote unless, before a ballot paper has been issued for the person to vote by proxy, the person applies at the polling station allotted to him or her under Part 2 for a ballot paper for the purpose of voting in person, in which case he or she may vote in person there.

(5) If the person is not entitled to vote by post or by proxy in the referendum, the person may vote in person at any polling station in Northern Ireland if paragraph (6) applies.

(6) This paragraph applies if the person cannot reasonably be expected to go in person to the polling station allotted to him or her under Part 2 by reason of his or her employment on the date of the poll for a purpose connected with the referendum, if that employment is—

(a) as a constable, or

(b) by the counting officer.

(7) Nothing in this regulation applies to—

(a) a person to whom section 7 of the 1983 Act (mental patients who are not detained offenders) applies and who is liable, by virtue of any enactment, to be detained in the mental hospital in question, whether the person is registered by virtue of that provision or not;

(b) a person to whom section 7A of the 1983 Act (persons remanded in custody) applies, whether the person is registered by virtue of that provision or not;

(c) a person who has an anonymous entry in a register maintained by the Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland;

and such a person may vote only by post or by proxy (where the person is entitled to vote by post or, as the case may be, by proxy in the referendum).

(8) Paragraph (2) does not prevent a person, at the polling station allotted to him or her, marking a tendered ballot paper in pursuance of regulation 37.