Elections

Any person who has attained the age of 18 years and is resident in the local authority area is eligible to vote in the election to local and regional councils.

However, people who are not nationals of Denmark, another EU Member State, Iceland or Norway may only vote if they have resided in the Kingdom for a period of three years prior to the election.

Furthermore, the following persons are not eligible to vote:

• persons who are on tolerated stay,
• persons who have been expelled from Denmark by a court judgement,
• persons who have been expelled from Denmark by administrative decision, and
• persons who reside in Denmark in order to serve a sentence from an international criminal court.

The lists of candidates will normally be available six weeks prior to election day or as soon as possible hereafter.

They will be available at the Citizen Services Center (for advance voting purposes) and at the polling stations on election day.

Persons who are entitled to vote according to the above mentioned criteria will be included automatically on the electoral register in the municipality where they are listed in the national register and receive a poll card five days before election day at the latest.

You will only receive one poll card regardless of whether you are entitled to vote for both the local and regional elections or only the regional elections (i.e. if you have moved to another municipality in the same region less than 7 days prior to election day).

If you are entitled to vote, and you have not yet received your poll card five days prior to election day, or the poll car contains erroneous information, you should contact your municipality as soon as possible.

Any voter may vote in advance at any Citizen Service center in Denmark from Tuesday six weeks prior to election day and no later than the Friday preceding election day. Please remember to bring some ID, eg. your passport or Danish health insurance card.

Advance voting can also take place at any Danish diplomatic representation abroad (embassies and consulates) from three months prior to election day, and from three weeks prior to election day also in hospitals for hospitalised voters, at care homes and sheltered housing etc., in prisons etc. for detainees, and at home upon application for voters who on account of illness or disability are unable to turn up at a polling station on election day.

If you have voted in advance, you cannot vote on election day.

At the polling station, you have to present yourself at the voting table indicated on your poll card and turn over your poll card to the keeper of the electoral register. You will be requested to give your date of birth. You might also be requested to give your name and/or address. If you have not received you poll card, or you have forgotten to bring it to the polling station, you can still vote. In case of doubt about your identity, the keeper of the electoral register has to determine your identity and might for this reason ask you to provide some form of documentation thereof, e.g. a passport, drivers license or other ID.

After the keeper of the electoral register has ticked off your name in the electoral register, you will be handed one ballot paper for the local election and one ballot paper for the regional election. If you only wish to use one of the ballot papers handed to you, you can either return the unused ballot paper to the appointed elector, who shall register the ballot paper as returned, or you can vote blank, i.e. put the unmarked ballot paper in the ballot box.

Voting takes place in the voting booth, which only the voter is allowed to enter, unless the voter is in need of assistance.

On the ballot paper you shall enter a cross against a list designation or the name of a candidate that you wish to vote for. If you have crossed the ballot paper off incorrectly, or the ballot paper has become invalid, e.g. if it has been torn by accident, you can have your ballot paper substituted by asking an appointed elector or polling supervisor. Substitution cannot take place once the ballot paper has been put in the ballot box.

Once you have cast your vote, you have to fold the ballot paper so that no one can see how you have voted. Next you have to put the ballot paper in the designated ballot box under the supervision of an appointed elector.

Voters who on account of disability, poor health or similar are unable to walk into a polling station or voting booth or in any other way are unable to vote in the prescribed way may request the assistance needed to cast their vote. This may call for the necessary modifications of the prescribed procedure and may entail access to cast one’s vote immediately outside the polling station (curbside voting).

Assistance in voting is rendered by two polling supervisors or appointed electors. Instead of one of the supervisors or appointed electors the voter can demand assistance in voting by a person of his/her own choice (a personally appointed helper). A candidate standing for election to the local or regional council may not render assistance in voting as polling supervisor or appointed elector.

The voter can also demand assistance in voting only by a personally appointed helper. However, in order to be assisted only by a personally appointed helper, two conditions must be fulfilled:

1. The voter must directly and unambiguously indicate to a polling supervisor or an appointed elector that the voter only wants to be assisted by a personally appointed helper, and
2. The voter's request must be based on a directly ascertainable or documentable physical or mental disability.

Assistance to cross off a ballot paper may be rendered only when the voter is able to indicate directly and unambiguously to those rendering assistance the list of candidates or candidate for which he or she wants to vote.

Furthermore, certain technical aids will be available for voters in order to help them cast their vote.

Any voter in the municipality or the region, respectively, may complain of the election. Complaints must be submitted in writing to the local council or the regional council, respectively, by the weekday after election day at the latest. Complaints are decided at a meeting to be held as soon as possible after expiry of the time-limit for the filing of complaints.

A person entitled to vote in elections to local and regional councils is also eligible for election to such councils unless the person in question has been sentenced or has passed a sentence that results in loss of eligibility. A person that is sentenced to imprisonment or is unconditionally denied driving license to a car is not eligible for elections to local and regional councils.

Any person who

• has attained the age of 18 years,
• is a national of Denmark and resident in Denmark or one of the other EU Member States or
• a national of one of the other EU Member States and resident in Denmark

may vote in the election to the European Parliament in Denmark.

Furthermore, the following persons are not eligible to vote:

• persons, that have been expelled from Denmark by a court judgement, and
• persons, that have been expelled from Denmark by administrative decision.

People living in the Faroe Islands or Greenland, are also ineligible to vote in the election to the European Parliament because the Faroe Islands and Greenland are not members of the EU.

People who are eligible to vote are normally also eligible to stand for election to the European Parliament unless they have been convicted of an offence which in the public opinion makes them unworthy of being a member of the European Parliament. Moreover, nationals of the other EU Member States may have lost their eligibility to stand for election in their home country by way of a decision in civil or criminal proceedings in the relevant home country.

Any person who has attained the age of 18 years, is a national of Denmark and resident in the Kingdom is eligible to vote in a general election.

People under guardianship who have been deprived of legal capacity, however, are ineligible to vote.

If you are eligible to vote, you are normally also eligible to stand for election to the Danish Parliament unless you have been convicted of an offence which in the public opinion makes you unworthy of being a member of local and regional councils. The Danish Parliament decides on its members’ eligibility to stand for election.