Flexible voting pilots

Summmary

Currently registered electors wanting to vote must either attend their allocated polling station on election day or arrange an absent vote. An absent vote is where an elector votes by post or appoints someone to vote on the day on their behalf (known as a proxy).

Voters are allocated a polling station by their electoral registration officer based on their address. Each council ward will usually have several polling places where polling stations are located so that polling stations are within easy reach of all electors.

The Labour government was elected with a manifesto commitment (PDF) to encourage greater participation in our democracy. To support this the government has authorised flexible voting pilots in some council areas for local elections in England in May 2026 and 2027.

The methods being piloted in 2026 are:

• voting hubs – central polling stations in busy places that are in addition to allocated polling stations
• early in-person voting at polling stations or hubs opened ahead of polling station

On 2 March 2026 the UK Government announced where piloting would take place. Cambridge City Council, North Hertfordshire District Council, and Tunbridge Wells Borough Council will pilot early voting at hubs open on the weekend before polling day as well as having normal polling stations on polling day. The early voting days and opening times vary between local authority.

Milton Keynes City Council will pilot a central voting hub opening 7am to 10pm on polling day as well as having its usual polling stations open in wards across the city.

These pilots do not affect the elections to the devolved parliaments in Scotland and Wales, also happening in May 2026. The UK Government is not responsible for making the rules about elections to the Scottish and Welsh Parliaments or local council elections in Scotland and Wales.

Current voting arrangements

A person must be registered in order to vote in an election. A person can register at any time but there are deadlines in advance of an election for registering (midnight on the twelfth working day before polling day). For elections on 7 May 2026 the deadline is Monday 20 April.

A voter can vote in person at their allotted polling station. When registering, a person will be allocated to a particular polling station. The elector will be informed which one on the polling card they are sent in advance of the election.

Local authority areas are divided into polling districts and each district will have one or more polling places. Polling stations are set up in polling places. A polling place may have more than one polling station within it. The local council chooses polling places. Polling stations are set up and equipped by the returning officer running the election in polling places. Both may change depending on the availability of suitable buildings. Councils are also required to conduct reviews of polling districts, places and stations at least once every five years.

If a person cannot get to their polling station on polling day they can choose to apply for an absent vote. An absent vote is either:

• a postal vote or
• a proxy vote, where an elector appoints someone to visit their polling station on their behalf and vote for them

There are deadlines for applying for or changing absent vote arrangements before an election. These are explained in the Library briefing Absent voting.

Why is polling day a Thursday? Local elections

The usual day for local elections in England is set by legislation (section 37 of the Representation of the People Act 1983). They take place on the first Thursday in May. The legislation allows for changing the day if required.

Local authorities in England hold elections on different cycles. Some elect all their councils once every four years, called ‘all out’ or whole council elections, other elect ‘by thirds’ or ‘by halves’. That means a third of councillors are re-elected every year for three years with a year off. or half the councillors are re-elected every other year. Councillors in England usually serve a four-year term. This may change if there has been a local government reorganisation, or the local council has had a ward boundary review.

Other pieces of legislation set the usual day of election for local government elections in other parts of the UK as the first Thursday in May (sections 37A and 43 of the Representation of the People Act 1983, as amended, and section 11 of the Electoral Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1962, as amended). Local council elections in other parts of the UK are all-out elections held on the relevant Thursday in May once every four or five years.

Devolved legislatures

Legislation also sets scheduled elections to the devolved parliaments in Scotland and Wales, and the assembly in Northern Ireland, as the first Thursday in May.

UK Parliament elections

Elections to the UK Parliament are held on a Thursday by custom.

A general election is triggered by the dissolution of parliament. Dissolution is the official term for the end of a Parliament. At dissolution, all business in both Houses ends and all MPs vacate their seats in the House of Commons.

A general election is then on the 25th working day after dissolution, as set out in the legislation setting out rules for holding a general election. Dissolution of Parliament is timed to provide for polling day to fall on the correct day. Saturdays, Sundays, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Good Friday and bank holidays in any part of the UK do not count for the general election timetable. These disregarded days are sometimes referred to as ‘dies non’. It means under the current rules polling day cannot be at a weekend.

The last non-Thursday election was Tuesday 27 October 1931. In 1922 and 1924 the general elections were held on Wednesdays and in 1931 the general election was held on a Tuesday.

The first election held on a single day was the 1918 election. This was required by the Representation of the People Act 1918. In this period the election timetable was shorter, and Saturday was not a disregarded day. Parliament was dissolved on Monday 25 November 1918 and polling day was 17 working days later on Saturday 14 December.

Before 1918 general elections were held over a period of a fortnight or more and could be on various days. The Ballot Act 1872 (schedule 1) provided for slightly different timetables depending on whether a constituency was a borough or county seat. Returning officers had more flexibility on days on which they could set for nomination and conducting a poll in the event of a contested election.

Flexible voting pilots in 2026

The Labour Party committed to encouraging greater participation (PDF) in democracy as part of its 2024 election manifesto.

One approach is to pilot more flexible ways of voting, and the government issued a prospectus inviting local authorities to take part in pilots in England in May 2026. The government said it wanted a diverse mix of councils that included variations in population size, socio-economic and demographic characteristics in a mix of metropolitan, rural, and urban areas.

The prospectus said the government wanted to explore “ways to make voting in person more efficient, more convenient, and better aligned with the expectations of today’s electors”.

It said the pilots will explore how flexible voting methods can better support electors who may face barriers to participation, “such as disabled voters, those in remote areas, and communities that are less likely to engage”. The prospectus said security and transparency would be central and pilots will examine the “operational, financial, and technological implications of delivering new flexible voting methods”.

What will be piloted?

The government prospectus said it wanted to pilot four core methods of in-person voting:

• Voting at any polling station, where voters could use any polling station in their local authority area
• Voting hubs, central polling stations in busy areas open on polling day: these would be in addition to regular polling stations
• Mobile polling stations that could travel to different locations, potentially including care homes, universities, or community centres.
• Early in-person voting that would operate ahead of polling day, with the option of including the weekend. This could be at polling stations or voting hubs

The government said it was also open to considering alternative ideas. Existing voter ID requirements will still apply.

Where will pilots be held?

Four local authorities have been chosen for pilots.

Cambridge City Council will trial early voting at three voting hubs in the city. Voters can choose to vote at an early voting hub or at their allocated polling station on polling day Thursday 7 May. The early voting hubs will allow voters from any ward to vote between 9am and 6pm on Thursday 30 April, Friday 1 May or Saturday 2 May. At the hubs polling staff will use electronic registers on tablets to ensure voters can be recorded as having voted in real time to prevent anyone voting more than once.

Milton Keynes City Council will provide a central voting hub at the main shopping centre on 7 May 2026 in addition to the normal polling stations in wards across the city. Polling will be available at the hub for the same time as polling stations (7am to 10pm).

North Hertfordshire will allow for early voting hubs on Saturday 2 May and Sunday 3 May 2026 as well as normal polling station voting (7am to 10pm) on 7 May. Early voting will be between 10 am and 3 pm at the early voting hubs.

Tunbridge Wells will allow for early voting hubs Saturday 2 May from 9am to 6pm and Sunday 3 May 2026 from 10.30am to 4.30pm. Normal polling station voting will be available 7am to 10pm on 7 May.

More details about will the options available will be made available by the councils involved. Information will also appear on polling cards received by registered electors in advance of the elections.

Who will pay for it?

The UK Government will fund any additional costs of holding a pilot scheme.

What power is used to authorise these pilots?

Electoral pilot schemes can be held under the section 10 of the Representation of the People Act 2000, as amended.

To hold a pilot, a set of local rules are required for each local authority. Without these the local returning officer would be obliged to follow electoral law as it stands, which says polling day must be the first Thursday in May from 7am to 10pm. The local rules allow the returning officer to modify their arrangements to test different processes. These are not subject to parliamentary approval. The government prospectus says these are likely to be in place by the end of January 2026.

The local orders were published on 2 March 2026:

Cambridge (Early Voting Pilot Scheme) Order 2026

Milton Keynes (Central Voting Pilot Scheme) Order 2026

North Hertfordshire (Early Voting Pilot Scheme) Order 2026

Tunbridge Wells (Early Voting Pilot Scheme) Order 2026

What happens at the end of the pilots?

The government will evaluate the pilots. The Electoral Commission is also required to evaluate the pilots. The government prospectus says it is planning to hold further pilots in May 2027, and possibly beyond. The prospectus said that “any future activity would be shaped by learning from the initial pilots”.

It would then be for the UK Government to decide whether to permanently implement any of the methods piloted for local council elections in England.
If the UK Government decided to make corresponding changes to UK Parliament elections the methods would be used for UK Parliament elections in the rest of the UK.

Any changes would need legislation. Depending on what was being changed, this might be done through a new elections act passed in the UK Parliament or by the UK Government using existing powers to introduce secondary legislation in the UK Parliament.

Previous pilots English local elections

Almost 160 pilots were previously run from 2000 to 2007 and pilots for voter ID requirements in polling stations were run in 2018 and 2019 before being implemented by the Elections Act 2022.

The pilots from 2000 to 2007 included early voting (voting in advance of polling day), mobile polling stations, all-postal elections, and extended polling station opening hours. The pilots also featured e-voting (internet and telephone voting and voting on screens in a polling station) and e-counting of votes.

The Electoral Commission’s 2007 evaluation (PDF) of advance voting found that these facilities were welcomed in terms of added convenience, but had low levels of use and were generally used by people who would have voted on polling day anyway. It said, “It is unlikely therefore that advance voting had anything more than a very limited effect on turnout.” The commission reached a similar conclusion about the 2006 pilots (PDF).

Some of the 2006 early voting pilots targeted specific voters, namely military personnel in barracks and care home residents. The aim for these was convenience rather than boosting turnout. They were very positively received, although overall levels of usage were low, and the commission said that given the relatively high cost of providing early voting facilities for specific small groups “other methods of providing support to targeted groups should also be explored”.

All-postal voting pilots in 2004 at European Parliament elections in four regions did improve turnout. Turnout was up in non-pilot areas too, but the all-postal pilot areas were five percentage points higher than non-pilot areas However, there were perceived concerns about the security of postal voting. The commission recommended all-postal elections should not be pursued for use at UK statutory elections. Since then, security measures for postal votes have been significantly improved.

In 2007 the Electoral Commission concluded that no more pilots should be conducted for the time being. It called on the UK Government to set out a strategy for modernising the electoral system and making it more secure.

On advance voting the commission concluded further piloting of advance voting was not necessary and recommended:

that the Government should come to a decision on whether advance voting should be mandatory, optional or discontinued. In developing that policy, we further recommend that the Government should consult widely on the implications of each of those options.

Weekend voting

One of the pilots trialled weekend voting instead of voting on a Thursday. In 2000 the borough of Watford piloted four innovations: weekend voting, a mobile polling facility, early voting and a freepost postal voting. Polling day was held the weekend after the usual Thursday polling day. Early voting and weekend voting did not appear to make much difference to turnout or attract many voters who would not have voted normally, but there was widespread support for the initiatives to make voting as easy as possible.

In 2002 the UK Government issued a consultation that included a question on weekend voting. The government noted there might be an impact on faith groups and also commented on the possible higher costs of weekend voting and possible difficulties in recruiting people over two days, and the availability of venues for polling stations. Weekend voting was not taken forward at the time. In a written statement the government said most respondents to this question were not in favour and practical difficulties were raised about proceeding with nation-wide weekend voting in 2004

The then Government’s 2007 policy paper, The Governance of Britain (Cm 7170, PDF) committed the government to consult local authorities and others on moving local elections in England and UK Parliament elections from Thursday to the weekend, and on the best way to do this. The consultation on paper was published (PDF) in June 2008. The conclusions were published by the Ministry of Justice in March 2010.

The government decided not to pursue weekend voting citing “many varied and complex views and issues” raised and “in the absence of clear evidence that its introduction would have a significant positive impact on participation rates”. Library briefing, Weekend voting, provides more detail.

The previous Conservative Government was against early or weekend voting.

Welsh local election pilots

Responsibility for the rules and eligibility to vote in Welsh local council and Senedd elections is devolved.

As part of the scheduled 2022 local council elections in Wales, four council areas undertook pilot schemes involving advance voting. The Welsh Government used the power under the section 10 of the Representation of the People Act 2000 to conduct the pilots.

Three local authorities, Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, and Torfaen, had a central voting centre for early voting. Two were open on the Saturday and Sunday before polling day, 10am to 4pm, and Blaenau Gwent’s centre was open on the two days before the usual Thursday polling day, 8am to 5pm. Bridgend had early voting polling stations in several wards where turnout had been poorer in the past. These were on the two days before the usual Thursday polling day, 8am to 5pm. In addition, there was an early polling station open on Tuesday before polling day in one of the local comprehensive schools so pupils aged 16 and 17 could vote.

The experience was similar to the earlier pilots in England. The Electoral Commission’s evaluation said:

the results indicate that the opportunity to vote in-person ahead of polling day does not, on its own, boost turnout significantly. This is not unexpected; we know that people’s motivation to vote or not to vote is driven by several factors and is not solely linked to convenience or choice of method.

While the turnout of early voters was low, the option was welcomed by those that used it and it does offer an additional choice for voters.

Note: there is no PDF associated with this briefing.

Footnotes