The European Parliamentary Elections Regulations 2004

Other voting offences E+W+S

24.—(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 vote by proxy or by post as elector at a European Parliamentary election knowing that he is subject to a legal incapacity to vote at the election; or

(b) he applies for the appointment of a proxy to vote for him at any European Parliamentary election knowing that he is or the person to be appointed is subject to a legal incapacity to vote at the election; or

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

For the purposes of this paragraph 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) References in paragraph (1) to legal incapacity to vote at a European Parliamentary election include incapacity to vote at the kind of election from which the entitlement to vote at a European Parliamentary election derives.

(3) 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 electoral region at any European Parliamentary election; or

(ii) in more than one electoral region at a European Parliamentary election, or

(iii) in any electoral region at a European Parliamentary election when there is in force an appointment of a person to vote as his proxy at the election in respect of an address other than the address by virtue of which he votes as elector; or

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

(c) he votes as elector in person at a European Parliamentary 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) he applies for a person to be appointed as his proxy to vote for him at European Parliamentary elections in any electoral region without applying for the cancellation of a previous appointment of a third person then in force in respect of that or another electoral region or without withdrawing a pending application for such an appointment in respect of that or another electoral region.

(4) 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 electoral region at any European Parliamentary election; or

(ii) in more than one electoral region at a European Parliamentary election; or

(b) he votes in person as proxy for an elector at a European Parliamentary 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 at a European Parliamentary election knowing that the elector has already voted in person at the election.

(5) A person shall also be guilty of an offence if he votes at a European Parliamentary election in any electoral region as proxy for more than two persons of whom he is not the [F1 spouse, civil partner], parent, grandparent, brother, sister, child or grandchild.

(6) 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 paragraphs of this regulation.

(7) For the purposes of this regulation 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 paragraph (5), 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.

[F2 (7A) A person is not guilty of an offence under paragraph (3)(b) or (4)(b) only by reason of his having marked a tendered ballot paper in pursuance of rule 44(4) or 44(6) of the European Parliamentary elections rules.]

(8) An offence under this regulation shall be an illegal practice, but 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 regulation 107.

Textual Amendments

F1 Words in reg. 24(5) substituted (5.12.2005) by The Civil Partnership Act 2004 (Amendments to Subordinate Legislation) Order 2005 (S.I. 2005/2114), reg. 1, Sch. 8 para. 2(2)

F2 Reg. 24(7A) inserted (30.1.2009) by The European Parliamentary Elections (Amendment) Regulations 2009 (S.I. 2009/186), regs. 1(2), 15