Home > 1.3.2.2.3 Other special voting procedures > ICELAND - Act No. 24 Concerning Parliamentary Elections to the Althing
 
 
 
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Article 63
 

Pre-election voting


Voters who wish to cast their votes outside of the regular polling session are required to prove their identity to the election official by, for instance, producing an identification document or an ID card, or by satisfying the opinion of the election official in another manner. Election officials shall maintain special registers of those who cast their votes at their stations, cf. paragraph 1 of Article 66.


Following this, the voter will receive electoral materials. The voter shall then, without assistance and without any other person seeing, write his or her vote on the ballot paper in the manner described in paragraph 2 of Article 62 and place the ballot paper in its envelope. The voter then writes an address on the covering letter and signs it in the presence of the election official, who witnesses the casting of the vote.


If the voter informs the election official that he or she is not able to write on the ballot paper in the prescribed manner, or write an address on the covering letter and sign it because of loss of eyesight or because the voter is not able to use his or her hand, the election official shall provide assistance in doing so in private, provided that the official is bound by professional secrecy not to divulge what has transpired between the two. The assistance rendered shall be indicated in the register according to paragraph 1 and in the covering letter specifying the reasons for such assistance. Assistance to write on the ballot paper shall only be rendered if the voter is able to state to the person rendering the assistance unequivocally how the voter wishes to cast his or her vote. It is not permitted to offer assistance to those who are in need of such aid.


Finally the ballot envelope, including the covering letter, must be placed in the postal envelope which must then be carefully closed. The envelope must then be addressed to the chairman of the local council, the district commissioner, or the electoral commission in the constituency where the voter considers himself or herself to be on the electoral register. The voter's name, ID number, and domicile must also be written on the postal envelope.