To locate your designated voting location:
- Check your voter registration status through various channels:
- Check your voter registration status online.
- SMS your ID number to 32810.
- Call the IEC's contact centre on 012 622 5700.
Once you've confirmed your voter registration status, you will receive information about your designated voting location, where you'll cast your ballot on election day. This information will include the address and any relevant details about the polling station assigned to you based on your residential address.
Special Votes allow registered voters who are unable to vote at their designated voting station on election day to cast their vote on a predetermined date before election day. You can apply for a special vote if you:
- You are physically infirm, disabled, pregnant, or unable to travel to your designated voting station on election day.
- Apply to cast a special vote at your voting station on the predetermined date only, as per the election timetable, through the following methods:
a. Use the secured online application form.
b. SMS your identity number to 32249 (R1.00 per SMS). (For special vote at a voting station ONLY).
c. Visit your local IEC office (not the national or provincial offices) and submit an MEC 35 form. Forms can only be hand-delivered (no emails or faxes accepted),
but someone else can deliver your completed form on your behalf.
For home visit special votes:
- Use the secured online application form.
- Have a family member or friend visit your local IEC office (not the national or provincial offices) and submit an MEC 35 form. Forms can only be hand-delivered (no emails or faxes accepted),but someone else can deliver your completed form on your behalf.
- You will receive an SMS notifying you of the outcome once your application has been processed, but you can also check the status of your special vote application online.
- If you are unable to travel to the voting station where you are registered due to physical infirmity, disability, or pregnancy, voting officials will visit you at the address specified in your application for a home visit and facilitate your vote.
No, voter registration for the 2024 elections has now closed.
If you are a registered voter who can’t vote at your voting station on Election Day you can apply to vote before Election Day once the process for applying for a special vote has opened. Generally you can apply online for a special vote.
After you have applied, you will be notified of the progress of your application. Only voters whose applications are approved (successful) may cast a special vote.
29 May 2024.
If your address is missing or incomplete on the voters’ roll, the IEC may ask you to complete an REC1 form at a separate table in the voting station. This is a normal process and part of the IEC’s efforts to continuously populate the voters’ roll with voters’ address details. You are not required to show any proof of residence.
No, the Electoral Commission uses manual systems.
No, you do not. All you will need is your valid, green, barcoded ID book; temporary ID, or smart ID card. You do not need any FICA-type documents.
No. The Electoral Commission uses your ID number and checks it against the National Population Register (NPR). They get your name as it’s reflected on the NPR (the Department of Home Affairs automatically changes your name when you get married), and that is the name that appears on the voters’ roll. You can apply to Home Affairs for a new ID reflecting your married name if you want to.
Yes, as long as your name is on the voters’ roll, you will be allowed to vote. Check your registration status by visiting: https://www.elections.org.za/pw/Voter/Voter-Information
If your name isn’t on the voters’ roll and you don’t have your registration sticker (or another form of proof that you are registered to vote), you have no proof that you have registered, and you won’t be able to vote.
Please remember that you must be a registered voter in order to vote. If you are registered, your name will appear on the voters’ roll. To confirm that you are registered and that your name is on the voters’ roll and to find out at which voting station you are registered, please click here for more information.
No, every voter must vote in person at the voting station or by home visit special vote.
The Electoral Commission (IEC), together with the South African National Council for the Blind (SANCB), has developed a voting aid, the Universal Ballot Template (UBT), to assist persons with disabilities and special needs to have an independent and secret vote during elections.
The UBT can be used by:
- Blind and partially-sighted people.
- Low-vision users.
- People who are dyslexic.
- Elderly people with low literacy.
- People with motor and nervous conditions which do not allow for a steady hand.
By-election results are published on the Electoral Commission website usually the day after by-elections.
They are also shared here.
You may be eligible for a special vote at your voting station if you are unable to vote on Election Day. You may be eligible for a home visit to cast your special vote if you are physically infirm, disabled or pregnant, and as a result unable to visit your voting station on Election Day.
Special voting takes place on a date set in the election timetable, which is usually the day before Election Day.
Special vote applications must be submitted during a set period as specified in the election timetable (usually about two weeks before the election date).
You can apply at the local IEC office where the election is taking place, or online at this address, or by SMSing your ID number to 32249 (R1 per SMS). You will be notified of the progress of your application. Only voters whose applications are approved (successful) may cast a special vote.
If you are unable to stand in a queue at the voting station, please indicate this to one of the IEC officials, who we trust will usher the elderly to the front of the queues at the polling stations. Hopefully, the IEC will provide chairs in the queue for South African seniors.
You can take anyone who is at least 18 years old and not a party agent with you to the voting station to help you cast your vote. You can also ask the presiding officer at the voting station to help you and/or provide you with a voting aid known as a universal ballot template (UBT).