Representation of the People Act 1983

61 Other voting offences

(1) A person shall be guilty of an offence if—

(a) he votes in person or by post, whether as an elector or as proxy, or applies to be treated as an absent voter or to vote by post as proxy, at a parliamentary or local government election, knowing that he is subject to a legal incapacity to vote ; or

(b) he applies for the appointment of a proxy to vote for him at parliamentary or local government elections, knowing that he or the person to be appointed is subject to a legal incapacity to vote ; or

(c) he votes, whether in person or by post, or applies to vote by post, as proxy for some other person at a parliamentary or local government election, knowing that that person is subject to a legal incapacity to vote.

For the purposes of this subsection references to a person being subject to a legal incapacity to vote do not, in relation to things done before polling day at the election or first election at or for which they are done, include his being below voting age if he will be of voting age on that day.

(2) A person shall be guilty of an offence if—

(a) he votes as elector otherwise than by proxy either—

(i) more than once in the same constituency at any parliamentary election, or more than once in the same electoral area at any local government election; or

(ii) in more than one constituency at a general election, or in more than one electoral area at an ordinary election of councillors for a local government area which is not a single electoral area; or

(iii) in any constituency at a general election, or in any electoral area at such an ordinary election as mentioned above, when there is in force an appointment of a person to vote as his proxy at the election in some other constituency or electoral area; or

(b) he votes as elector in person at a parliamentary or local government election at which he is entitled to vote by post; or

(c) he votes as elector in person at a parliamentary or local government election, knowing that a person appointed to vote as his proxy at the election either has already voted in person at the election or is entitled to vote by post at the election; or

(d) not being a service voter, he applies for a person to be appointed as his proxy to vote for him at parliamentary elections without applying for the cancellation of a previous appointment of a third person then in force or without withdrawing a pending application for such an appointment.

(3) A person shall be guilty of an offence if—

(a) he votes as proxy for the same elector either—

(i) more than once in the same constituency at any parliamentary election, or more than once in the same electoral area at any local government election; or

(ii) in more than one constituency at a general election, or in more than one electoral area at an ordinary election of councillors for a local government area which is not a single electoral area; or

(b) he votes in person as proxy for an elector at a parliamentary or local government election at which he is entitled to vote by post as proxy for that elector; or

(c) he votes in person as proxy for an elector registered as a service voter at a parliamentary or local government election knowing that the elector is entitled to vote by post at the election; or

(d) he votes in person as proxy for an elector at a parliamentary or local government election knowing that the elector has already voted in person at the election.

(4) A person shall also be guilty of an offence if he votes at a parliamentary election in any constituency as proxy for more than two persons of whom he is not the husband, wife, parent, grandparent, brother, sister, child or grandchild.

(5) A person shall also be guilty of an offence if he knowingly induces or procures some other person to do an act which is, or but for that other person's want of knowledge would be, an offence by that other person under the foregoing subsections of this section.

(6) For the purposes of this section a person who has applied for a ballot paper for the purpose of voting in person, or who has marked, whether validly or not, and returned a ballot paper issued for the purpose of voting by post, shall be deemed to have voted, but for the purpose of determining whether an application for a ballot paper constitutes an offence under subsection (4) above, a previous application made in circumstances which entitle the applicant only to mark a tendered ballot paper shall, if he does not exercise that right, be disregarded.

(7) An offence under this section shall be an illegal practice, but—

(a) the court before whom a person is convicted of any such offence may, if they think it just in the special circumstances of the case, mitigate or entirely remit any incapacity imposed by virtue of section 173 below ; and

(b) a candidate shall not be liable, nor shall his election be avoided, for an illegal practice under this section of any agent of his other than an offence under subsection (5) above.