Voting method

The Elections Act (2005:837; last amended in 2014)

Chapter 7. General provisions on voting

The different ways of voting

Section 1: Voting takes place at vote reception points. Voters shall vote in the first instance at their polling stations on the election day. They can also vote prior to or during the election day at voting places set up by the municipalities or foreign missions. Voters may also in certain cases give their votes to specially appointed voting clerks (mobile voting clerks) or vote by messenger or letter.

Voting by messenger

Section 4: Voters who, owing to illness, impairment or old age, cannot personally make their way to a vote reception point may deliver their ballot papers there by messenger.

Section 6: For general elections to the Riksdag and to municipal and county council assemblies and elections to the European Parliament, a vote by messenger may be arranged no earlier than 24 days prior to the election day.

For other elections, a vote by messenger may be arranged no earlier than 10 days prior to the election day. However, a vote by messenger that is delivered at a foreign mission may in these cases be arranged no earlier than 20 days prior to the election day.

Postal voting

Section 11: Voters who are staying abroad or on board a vessel in foreign traffic may vote by letter.

When may postal votes be arranged?

Section 12: Postal votes may be arranged no earlier than 45 days prior to the election day.

However, in the case of elections other than a general election to the Riksdag and to municipal and county council assemblies and also an election to the European Parliament postal votes may be arranged only after the date on which the election will be held has been decided.

Act on National Referenda (SFS 1979: 369)

Section 5: Voting rights in referenda are granted to those who are entitled to vote in elections to the Riksdag. […]

Voting from Abroad: The International IDEA Handbook 2007:

“Sweden also has a unique procedure, called voting by messenger: the elector needs a special outer envelope which he/she can either obtain from the election administration or collect at any available voting place. Apart from the elector, a witness and a messenger are required to be present at the preparation of the vote. The elector prepares the vote in person, and the witness has to certify with his/her signature and personal identification number that the voting procedure was properly carried out. The messenger also has to sign the outer envelope, and transport and deliver the envelope with the documents and the vote to a diplomatic mission abroad or polling station within the country. The witness and the messenger cannot be the same person. This procedure is qualitatively different from that of the proxy vote, since the voter marks the ballot paper himself or herself.”