Register to vote

You can register to vote at any time. You don’t need to wait until an election has been called.

A BSL video on Registering to vote

You can register to vote when you are:

• Aged 14 or older for Scottish Parliament and council elections
• Aged 16 or older for UK Parliament elections.

You must also be one of the following:

• A British citizen living in Scotland
• An Irish citizen living in Scotland
• A foreign national of another country living in Scotland who has leave to enter or stay in the UK, or who does not need leave.

You only need to register once - not for every election. But you do need to register again if you change your:

• Name
• Address
• Nationality.

Voting, democracy and politics can seem complicated and confusing and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. However, you don’t need to feel that way as there is lots of information available from the Electoral Commission that should help you feel better informed and ready to get involved in democracy.

As mentioned above, you can register to vote from the age of 14 for Scottish Parliament and council elections because you can cast your vote from age 16 when there is a poll for these. You can only vote in the UK Parliament elections when you turn 18 but can register to vote in them from age 16.

Getting informed early is important so check out the Welcome to your Vote information on the Resources for young people page of the Electoral Commission website and take that first step of registering to vote as soon as you can.

You may need your:

• National Insurance number
• Passport if you're a British citizen living abroad.

Your local electoral registration officers will contact you to confirm that you've been registered to vote.