Electoral (Amendment) Act 2004

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Procedure for voting.

10.—(1) Subject to the provisions in the relevant Act or Regulations concerning voting with the assistance of a companion or presiding officer, personation and the right to vote, the presiding officer shall permit an elector, who applies to vote and declares his or her name and address, to vote on a voting machine.

(2) Immediately before an elector is permitted to vote—

(a) the number (including polling district letter) and name of the elector as stated in the register shall be called out,

(b) a mark shall be placed in the register against the number of the elector to denote that the elector has been permitted to vote, and

(c) the presiding officer or person authorised by him or her shall open the voting machine.

(3) An elector on receiving permission to vote shall (subject to the provisions concerning voting with the assistance of a companion or presiding officer) go alone to one of the voting machines in the polling station or such one of them as he or she is directed to so go to by the presiding officer and there shall secretly record his or her preferences on the ballot paper displayed on the voting machine and shall then cast his or her vote by pressing the cast vote button on that machine. He or she shall vote without undue delay and shall leave the polling station as soon as he or she has voted.

(4) Where an elector has failed to cast, in accordance with subsection (3), his or her vote and has left the polling station and the presiding officer, accordingly, has reason to believe that the voting machine concerned is still open, the presiding officer shall verify, remotely (by means of the control unit), whether that is the case and, if the machine is open, shall de-activate it. Where an elector fails to leave a voting machine within a reasonable time, the provisions of section 106(1) of the Act of 1992, Rule 67 of the Second Schedule to the Act of 1997 or Article 68 of the Regulations of 1995, as appropriate, shall apply and, where, in such circumstances, the voting machine is still open, the presiding officer shall de-activate it.

(5) In a case to which subsection (4) applies, an elector shall not be entitled to re-apply to vote at the poll.

(6) The presiding officer shall keep a separate record and make out a separate statement in a form directed by the Minister of the number of electors permitted to vote on voting machines in the polling station and, as respects each such machine, the number of electors who voted on it and the number of instances arising under subsection (4) with respect to each such machine.