Parliamentary Elections Act 1954 · 2020 Revised Edition · Part 3 · Elections
47A. Special polling arrangements to meet voting needs of certain voters
Feedback & supportLast amended by an amending law of 2023.
The Returning Officer may, for the purposes of the poll in an election in any electoral division —
Returning Officer
“Returning Officer” means the Returning Officer appointed under section 3;
establish all or part of a nursing home as a special polling station; and
authorise all or any of the following special polling arrangements to be provided to service the voting needs of electors who are in-patients or residents of the nursing home during the election period of the election by enabling them to record their votes there in that poll:
by establishing one or more polling places within the nursing home for those in-patients or residents to attend in person to record their votes;
by deploying one or more mobile polling teams to visit those in-patients or residents to take the votes of those in-patients or residents, as the case may be.
In determining whether to establish a special polling station under subsection (1) in a nursing home for the purposes of the poll in an election, the Returning Officer must have regard to whether there is or is likely to be, during the election period of the election, a significant number of electors who are in-patients or residents of the nursing home and who —
polling station
“polling station” means any polling station established by or under the authority of the Returning Officer under section 36A for voters to cast their votes at an election, and includes any overseas polling station;
are unable or likely to be unable to travel to the ordinary polling stations allotted to them respectively under section 36A(1) except with great difficulty; but(b)are able to vote at the nursing home by marking a ballot paper personally or in the manner allowed under section 42(5).
In addition, the Returning Officer must have regard to the following factors in determining whether to authorise special polling arrangements by way of mobile polling to be made available under subsection (1)(b)(ii):
the number of electors who are in-patients or residents of the nursing home with any physical condition, serious illness or infirmity that will preclude the electors’ attendance in person at a polling place in the special polling station;
the practicality of establishing and deploying mobile polling teams to take the votes of those electors, having regard to their numbers and the resources required for doing so;
the existence of any peculiar circumstances within the nursing home applying to those electors and their voting needs.
Subject to subsection (5) and regulations made under section 47C, a poll and voting at a special polling station by electors who are in-patients or residents of a nursing home where the special polling station is established must be conducted, as far as practicable, in the same manner as that in which a poll and voting at an ordinary polling station on polling day is conducted.
Despite sections 80, 81 and 82, the person in charge of a nursing home where a special polling station is established under subsection (1) may lawfully inform a presiding officer who is a member of a mobile polling team deployed at that special polling station that a visit to an in-patient or a resident of the nursing home is forbidden on medical grounds, and the mobile polling team must then not visit the in-patient or resident to take the in-patient’s or resident’s vote.