Iceland

Population Statistics

331,918

Total Population

49,788

Population with a disability

according to World Health Organization’s 15% estimate

Election Dates

30
nov

Iceland Parliament 2024

2024

23 September 2016

Ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities


Act amending the General Elections Act and the Local Government Elections Act (Assistance with Voting) ...

Updated: June 2015

Article 63 states:

If a voter states to the election board that he/she is not capable of voting in the prescribed manner due to poor eyesight or inability to use his/her hands, a person from the election board named by the voter shall assist him/her in the polling booth; a person providing such assistance is bound by an oath of confidentiality not to reveal what passed between them there. Note shall be made of the assistance in the record book and the reasons given. [Assistance shall only be given if an elector him-/herself can unambiguously tell the person giving the assistance how he/she wishes to cast the ballot.]1) A member of the election board may in no case offer assistance to a person requiring help in accordance with this Article.

 

Excerpt from Act amending the General Elections Act and the Local Government Elections Act (Assistance with Voting) (2000, amended 2012)

Act amending the General Elections Act and the Local Government Elections Act (assistance with voting)

Updated: April 2015

Article 1 states:

If the circumstances of a voter…are such that he requests to have a representative, whom he has chosen himself, help him to cast his vote, the election official shall make a break in voting until other voters who may be present have finished casting their votes...The election official shall authorise the representative to help the voter to cast his vote if the voter himself is able to express his will clearly … to the election official stating that he wishes to have assistance from the representative…If the voter is not able, by himself, to express this will clearly to the election official, then the election official shall authorise the representative to help the voter to cast his vote if the voter submits a certificate from a rights protection officer who works in accordance with the Act on the Protection of the Rights of Disabled Persons confirming that the voter has himself chosen a particular, named, representative to help him to cast his vote... The election official shall record his decision in the register provided for under the first paragraph and state the reasons for it…If the election official authorises the voter’s representative to assist him with casting his vote, then voting shall proceed and the fact that assistance was given shall be mentioned in the accompanying letter…

 

Article 2 states:

If the circumstances of a voter covered by the first paragraph are such that he requests to have a representative, whom he has chosen himself, help him to cast his vote in the polling booth, a break shall be made in the voting until other voters who may be present in the polling room have finished casting their votes... The electoral commission, or local electoral commission…shall immediately prepare a ruling on the voter’s request... The electoral commission shall authorise the representative to help the voter to cast his vote if the voter himself is able to express his will clearly… to the electoral commission stating that he wishes to have assistance from the representative…If the voter is not able, by himself, to express this will clearly …then the electoral commission shall authorise the representative to help the voter to cast his vote if the voter submits a certificate from a rights protection officer who works in accordance with the Act on the Protection of the Rights of Disabled Persons, confirming that the voter has himself chosen a particular, named, representative to help him to cast his vote... The electoral commission’s decision shall be recorded in the electoral records book, with the reasons stated…

 

Article 4 states:

If the circumstances of a voter covered by the first paragraph are such that he requests to have a representative, whom he has chosen himself, help him to cast his vote in the polling booth, a break shall be made in the voting until other voters who may be present in the polling room have finished casting their votes... The electoral commission, or local electoral commission where there is more than one ward, shall immediately prepare a ruling on the voter’s request... The electoral commission shall authorise the representative to help the voter to cast his vote if the voter himself is able to express his will clearly …to the electoral commission stating that he wishes to have assistance from the representative…If the voter is not able, by himself, to express this will clearly to the electoral commission, then the electoral commission shall authorise the representative to help the voter to cast his vote if the voter submits a certificate from a rights protection officer who works in accordance with the Act on the Protection of the Rights of Disabled Persons, confirming that the voter has himself chosen a particular, named, representative to help him to cast his vote…The electoral commission’s decision shall be recorded in the electoral records book, with the reasons stated...

 

Excerpts from the Act amending the General Elections Act and the Local Government Elections Act (assistance with voting) (2012)