Voting with sight loss: Our ultimate guide

This means physically visiting your local polling station and casting your vote in a polling booth. The polling station you are to vote at will be specified on your polling card.

Polling stations are open on polling day, from 7:00am-10:00pm.

In order to vote at your polling station, you will need to show a form of photo ID, for example your passport, blue badge or disabled person’s bus pass. Don’t worry if your ID has expired – providing the photo looks like you and the name is the same as your name on the electoral register, you are good to vote.

If you don’t have a form of photo ID that meets the criteria, you can apply for a Voter Authority Certificate.

You also have the option to cast your vote via post.

This involves filling out a ballot paper and postal voting statement from home, and sending it to your local Electoral Registration Office, or handing it in at your local polling station on polling day if you’re too late to post it.

If you want to vote by post, you will need to specifically register for this, and you will be sent your postal voting statement and ballot paper for you to fill out.

When completing a postal vote, there is a box where you are to write your signature on both the ballot paper and postal voting statement, however if you are visually impaired and/or you struggle to provide a consistent signature, you can ask to be granted a waver which will exempt you from this. Contact your Local Authority and speak to the electoral services department to arrange this.

You can apply to vote by proxy, allowing somebody you trust to fill out the ballot paper on your behalf when they visit the polling station. You can only vote by proxy in certain circumstances: having a medical issue or disability is one of them.

The person acting as your proxy must be eligible to vote in that particular election, and vote in the polling station that has been allocated to you.

Your proxy will need to provide their own photo ID, but doesn’t need to show your photo ID.

If you want to make sure that your needs will be met, ahead of polling day, you can contact your Local Authority’s Electoral Services Department to notify them of any adjustments that would make the voting process more accessible for you.

By law, all polling stations must have a large print candidate list available, both on display at the polling station, and as a copy that can be taken into the booth.

The candidate list may already be provided in other formats, including Braille, and/or audio. However, it is not a legal requirement to provide the candidate list in these formats, so you may want to contact your Local Authority to make it known that this is a reasonable adjustment that you need, and without that reasonable adjustment, you wouldn’t be able to vote independently.

You can use a Tactile Voting Device to help mark your vote in the correct place. Each polling station is legally required to provide a Tactile Voting Device for people with sight loss.

The Tactile Voting Device attaches to your ballot paper via a sticky backing, and has numbered lift up flaps which go over each of the corresponding boxes where you mark your vote. You will need to remember the number of the candidate you are voting for (the candidates are listed alphabetically), lift the flap with that same number and then mark your cross in that box.

You can also ask if you can use a device such as a video magnifier or mobile phone to help you to vote independently.

While the Cabinet Office have told all Returning Officers they can allow this reasonable adjustment, it is the decision of each individual Returning Officer as to whether to allow this.

By law, all polling stations must provide hand-held magnifiers.

You can ask a member of polling station staff to guide you around the polling station, read out the instructions on the ballot paper and the names of the parties and candidates in the order that they appear on the ballot paper, and mark your vote if needed.

A companion can support you at the polling station. Your companion can be anybody aged 18 or over who is eligible to vote in that election.

They must make a written declaration that you asked for support.

If you have chosen to vote by post, you can also request assistance at home, including a tactile voting device, a large print candidate list for reference, help with returning your completed ballot paper, and a waver so that you do not need to provide signatures.

Contact your Local Authority to discuss any reasonable adjustments that would help you.