Weekend voting
Polling day for UK elections is usually Thursday and cannot be held at a weekend. Weekend voting pilots are being held in four areas in local elections in May 2026.
The UK normally holds elections on Thursdays. For most elections this is set out in legislation. For UK Parliament elections this is by convention.
Holding elections at weekends is not currently possible. Election timetables for all polls exclude weekends, bank holidays, Christmas Eve, and certain other days, making Saturday and Sunday ineligible for polling day.
Weekend voting pilots 2026The UK Government has authorised weekend voting pilots in three local authority areas in England. Voting will be held in voting hubs the weekend before polling day. Voters will be able to choose to use the hubs or vote in their normal polling station on Thursday 7 May.
Previous pilotsWeekend voting has periodically been examined, particularly in the 2000s. A series of local government pilot schemes in England between 2000 and 2007 tested innovations including weekend voting, early voting, mobile polling stations, and electronic voting methods.
Evaluations found little evidence that weekend or early voting significantly increased turnout or attracted voters who would not otherwise vote, though there was general support for making voting easier.
Consultation on weekend votingThe UK Government consulted on weekend voting in 2002 and again in 2008 as part of wider electoral reform proposals. Consultation responses were mixed, with slightly more respondents favouring retaining weekday voting. Faith groups, political parties, electoral administrators and most local authorities opposed weekend voting at the time. While some members of the public expressed support, the government concluded in 2010 that weekend voting lacked sufficient evidence of benefit and posed significant logistical challenges and therefore decided not to proceed.
Other voting pilotsThe Association of Electoral Administrators has more recently suggested that weekend voting could be reconsidered as part of a broader review of electoral modernisation.
The UK Government has committed to holding flexible voting pilots. Local elections in some areas in England will pilot flexible voting methods in May 2026. These are not currently planned to trial weekend voting.
Why is polling day Thursday?All types of elections must be conducted in accordance with the election timetables as set out in legislation. Those timetables discount Saturdays, Sundays, Christmas Eve, Easter Monday and bank holidays. It means polling day cannot be held on these days.
UK Parliament elections are held on a Thursday by convention. A UK Parliament election could be held on another weekday, but the timetable is triggered so that polling day falls on a Thursday.
Other scheduled elections, such as local council elections and elections to the devolved legislatures, the Scottish and Welsh Parliaments and the Northern Ireland Assembly, are required to be held on the first Thursday in May by legislation. There is scope for them to be held on other weekdays in exceptional circumstances but not at weekends.
UK Parliament electionsElections 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 held 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.
Recall petitionsThe rules for when a recall petition is held in a UK Parliament constituency are contained in different legislation to those for the election timetables.
A petition must be available for signing Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm, except bank holidays during the period the petition is open. Signing places do not all necessarily have to have the same opening times.
The petition officer (the returning officer who runs the petition) must also make reasonable provision for the availability of the petition for signing at other times. This might be extended opening hours on a particular day or days. The recall petition held in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West in 2021 included two Saturdays where the petition was open for signing from 9am to 1pm.
Other elections Local electionsThe 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 legislaturesLegislation also sets scheduled elections to the devolved parliaments in Scotland and Wales, and the assembly in Northern Ireland, as the first Thursday in May.
2026 weekend voting pilotsThe Labour Party committed to encouraging greater participation (PDF) in democracy as part of its 2024 election manifesto.
The UK Government has authorised flexible voting pilots in local elections in England in May 2026. This will allow early voting the weekend before the usual polling day of 7 May. Cambridge, North Hertfordshire and Tunbridge Wells councils will pilot early voting at voting hubs within the local authority.
Voting hubs will be open on the weekend before polling day. Polling stations will be open in wards across the authorities as usual on polling day. The early voting days opening times vary between local authority. Voters will be able to choose to use the hubs or vote in their normal polling station on Thursday 7 May.
The UK Government and the Electoral Commission will evaluate the pilots. The government’s prospectus issued in advance of the pilots said that “any future activity would be shaped by learning from the initial pilots”.
Has weekend voting been considered before?Weekend voting was considered in the 2000s. Some electoral pilot schemes were held in English local authorities and the then UK Government consulted on whether polling day should be at a weekend. The government ultimately decided not to proceed with weekend voting.
There have been no recent plans to consider or pilot weekend voting by the UK Government or by the devolved governments in Scotland and Wales.
The Association of Electoral Administrators has suggested in its New Blueprint for a Modern Electoral Landscape that weekend voting should be considered as part of a full review of current polling provision, including polling hours, weekend voting, voting hubs and how technology could benefit polling processes. It says this could help both staffing and venue availability and would mean that schools, which are often used as polling places, could be used without disrupting education.
English pilotsAlmost 160 pilots were previously run from 2000 to 2007. They 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.
In local elections in May 2000 Watford piloted four innovations. One of those was weekend voting. The others were mobile ballot boxes, early polling, and free delivery of the election address. This election address allowed the council to provide one free delivery of an election leaflet, in a single postal deliver, for all candidates.
The weekend voting pilot meant voters could vote in person at polling stations on the Saturday and Sunday, 6 and 7 May, instead of having normal polling on Thursday 4 May 2000. The only polling on Thursday 4 May was by mobile ballot boxes where thirty pre-arranged sites were open at points during the day. Sites were all residential care homes and sheltered accommodation.
Early voting was open to all on the 27, 28 and 29 April from 8am to 9pm. It was at one site, at a major supermarket in the town in North Watford, and voters from any ward were able to vote. In total polling stations were available to all electors for 59 hours over five days.
The evaluation for these pilots was written for the Association of Electoral Administrators as the pilots pre-dated the Electoral Commission.1 It pointed out that simultaneously piloting four schemes made it difficult to evaluate the impact of each scheme on the overall picture.
Early voting and weekend voting did not appear to make much difference to turnout or attract many voters who would not have voted normally. There was little difference in turnout between Saturday and Sunday. However, there was widespread support for the initiatives to make voting as easy as possible. Some cited the tradition of voting on a Thursday as a reason to oppose a change in voting day. The evaluation noted that weekend voting “may need to be repeated a number of times before the electorate becomes accustomed to the change.”2
In 2002 Camden piloted early weekend voting before the traditional polling day. Only 1.1% of the 28.4% who voted did so during the early voting period. The rest used polling stations on the traditional Thursday or used postal votes. Despite a wide-ranging promotional campaign, 57% of respondents to the council’s own exit poll said they had seen no publicity about the weekend voting pilot.
The Electoral Commission recommended early voting as a supplement to Thursday voting should not be piloted further. Future pilots should focus on testing the potential benefits of adopting weekend voting (or voting over several days) in place of Thursday voting.
The government response to the 2002 evaluation was set out in the appendix to the 2003 pilot evaluation (PDF). It noted “that early voting in polling stations had little or no benefit in terms of increased turnout while increasing councils’ election costs” Pilots in 2003 focused on all-postal pilots and alternative voting method, such as telephone voting and e-voting, including using the internet, text messages, e-voting kiosks in polling stations.
Further pilots in 2006 and 2007 focused on advance voting. In August 2007, the Electoral Commission recommended 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”.3
The UK Government has committed to holding flexible voting pilots. Local elections in some areas in England will pilot flexible voting methods in May 2026. These are not currently planned to trial weekend voting. They will trial early voting and methods to allow people to vote in any polling station or mobile polling stations in their local area.
ConsultationsIn 2002 the UK Government issued a consultation. It was primarily about combining English local elections with the European Parliament elections in 2004, but it also asked for views on weekend voting for those elections.
The government reported that in response to the questions on weekend voting, “74 were in favour of this proposal, 66 respondents supported further pilots or testing of weekend voting and 91 were against”. The Electoral Commission did not support “wholesale mandatory weekend voting in 2004.”
The government decided against weekend voting for the elections, which went ahead on Thursday 10 June for most voters. The government did decide to conduct all-postal ballot pilots in some areas.
In 2007, the UK Government committed to consult on weekend voting as part of its policy paper, The Governance of Britain. It noted that it had piloted advance voting on a weekend in addition to normal voting rather than consulting on moving towards weekend voting.
The government said the consultation would take account of the needs of religious groups, to ensure that those with religious objections to voting on a Saturday or Sunday have an opportunity to vote in a way that is consistent with their beliefs.
The consultation was published in June 2008, Election Day: Weekend Voting (PDF). Announcing the consultation, the Minister for Constitutional Renewal said:
The reason elections are traditionally held on Thursdays is obscure. We should not be afraid to try a new voting day that fits in better with people's busy lives, while also recognising the constraints of money and belief.
The consultation suggested a possible reason for changing to a weekend was convenience for the voters in general, which could also improve turnout. It acknowledged that some research had shown (in a range of countries which have adopted weekend voting since 1948) turnout did not appear to increase as a consequence, and there is no reliable evidence that weekend voting is an effective cure for low turnout.
As well as considering religious observance as a possible barrier to weekend voting for some, the consultation noted that the move could have consequences for the administration and cost of elections. Issues included:
- Recruitment of staff who might have outside leisure and social commitments, particularly if voting was over two days
- Long working hours over a weekend particularly if polling hours remained 7am to 10pm on both days and a count was conducted as polls closed on Sunday night
- Polling station venue availability at weekends, particularly church halls or in rural areas
- Security of the poll if held over two days. Ballot boxes and polling station documents would need securing overnight
- Royal Mail sweeps. The Royal Mail currently sweeps its sorting depots for postal votes to ensure none are missed before the close of poll. If elections are held at weekends, this could raise issues
The conclusions were published by the Ministry of Justice in March 2010. The majority of respondents (53%) favoured retaining polling day as a weekday. Support for weekend voting was strongest amongst members of the public who responded. None of the faith groups which responded to the consultation favoured weekend voting. There “was little support amongst the political groups” and local authorities and electoral administrators that responded overwhelmingly favoured retaining election day on a weekday (81% and 78%, respectively).
The government decided not to pursue weekend voting.
For now, however, given the many varied and complex views and issues surfaced by the responses to this consultation and in the absence of clear evidence that its introduction would have a significant positive impact on participation rates that would justify the increased resource needs the Government does not propose to move forward with weekend voting at this time.
The previous Conservative Government was against early or weekend voting.
Note: there is no PDF associated with this briefing
Footnotes