The European Union Referendum (Conduct) Regulations 2016

Equipment of polling stations

22.—(1) The counting officer must provide each presiding officer with however many ballot boxes and ballot papers the counting officer thinks are necessary.

(2) Every ballot box must be constructed so that the ballot papers can be put in it, but cannot be withdrawn from it, without the box being unlocked or (in the case of a box without a lock) the seal being broken.

(3) The counting officer must provide each polling station with—

(a) materials to enable voters to mark the ballot papers;

(b) copies of each register of electors used for the referendum that contains the entries relating to the electors allotted to the station (or, in the case of a register only part of which contains those entries, that part);

(c) the parts of any special lists prepared for the referendum corresponding to each register or part of a register provided under sub-paragraph (b);

(d) a list consisting of that part of the list prepared under regulation 11 that contains the numbers (but not the other unique identifying marks) corresponding to those on the ballot papers provided to the presiding officer of the polling station.

The list provided under sub-paragraph (d) must be in the form set out in Form 13 in Schedule 4.

(4) The counting officer must also provide each polling station with—

(a) at least one large version of the ballot paper, which must be displayed inside the polling station for the assistance of voters who are partially sighted;

(b) a device for enabling voters who are blind or partially sighted to vote without any need for assistance from the presiding officer or any companion (see regulation 36(1)).

(5) The device mentioned in paragraph (4)(b) must—

(a) allow a ballot paper to be inserted into and removed from the device, or attached to and detached from it, easily and without damage to the paper;

(b) keep the ballot paper firmly in place during use;

(c) provide suitable means for the voter—

(i) to identify the spaces on the ballot paper on which the voter may mark his or her vote,

(ii) to identify the answer to which each such space refers, and

(iii) to mark his or her vote on the space the voter has chosen.

(6) A notice giving directions for the guidance of the voters in voting must be printed in conspicuous characters and exhibited inside and outside every polling station.

(7) That notice must be in the form set out in Form 14 in Schedule 4 (for a polling station in England, Wales or Scotland) or Form 15 in that Schedule (for a polling station in Northern Ireland).

(8) In every compartment of every polling station there must be exhibited the notice—

“Put a cross [X] in one box only. Put no other mark on the ballot paper, or your vote may not be counted”.

(9) The reference in paragraph (3)(b) to the copies of a register of electors includes a reference to copies of any notices issued under section 13B(3B) or (3D) or 13BA(9) of the 1983 Act(1) in respect of alterations to the register.

(1)

Section 13B was inserted by paragraphs 1 and 6 of Schedule 1 to the Representation of the People Act 2000 (c.2); subsections (3B) and (3D) were inserted by section 11 of the Electoral Administration Act 2006 (c.22). Section 13BA(9) was inserted by section 6(2) of the Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2006 (c.33).