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2022 SWEDISH ELECTION

Everything you need to know about voting on election day in Sweden

Did you forget your voting card or your ID? How late are polling stations open? What happens if you change your mind?

Published: 11 September 2022 15:00 CEST
Everything you need to know about voting on election day in Sweden
Election envelopes at a polling station at Hästhagens sporthall in Malmö on Sunday afternoon. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

When are polling stations open on election day? 

Most polling stations in Sweden are open for twelve hours between 8am and 8pm. You can find your polling station on the voting card, which you should have had sent to the address where you are registered.  

How do I find my polling station? 

You can find the polling station where you are registered, here on the Election Authority’s webpage. Once you get to your municipality, you can find a map with all of the polling stations marked on it. 

The ballot papers have different colours, what do they mean? 

The white voting slip is for the municipal election, the blue one for the regional election, and the yellow one for the national election. 

READ ALSO: Can I vote in the 2022 Swedish election?

Some ballot papers have a list of names on them and some don’t, which should I take? 

At the polling booth, there are different ballot papers for each of the three elections taking place: yellow papers are for the Riksdag elections, blue for the county council, and white for the municipal council. 

There are also three different kinds of ballot papers, allowing you to vote either for a particular party (without identifying a specific candidate), to choose from a list of candidates as well as parties, or to vote using a blank ballot paper. On blank ballot papers, you can write down any party and candidate. In theory, it’s possible to write anyone’s name, and if that person got a large enough proportion of votes, they would be elected.

You then put the ballot paper you picked in an envelope and hand it to the election officer in the room.

How has the system changed in this election? 

Following criticism from the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the way voters collect their ballot papers has been changed in this year’s election. 

In previous elections, voters would pick ballot papers for the party they wanted to vote for in an open area of polling stations.

The OSCE, in its report on the 2018 election, said that this was a threat to voting secrecy, as others in the polling station can tell which party a person is voting for by looking at which paper they pick up.

In this election, the area holding the ballot papers will be for the first time have to be shielded from public view, so that ballot papers can be picked up in secrecy. 

Previously the only way to keep your vote secret was to collect several different ballots before going behind the screen to vote. 

Who is responsible for making sure there are ballot papers at the polling station? 

In this election, for the first time, it is the voting clerks at the polling stations who responsible for making sure that all the ballot papers with lists of candidates’ names are available.

The political parties are responsible for printing them and delivering them to each polling station, and also for ensuring that they do not run out. 

Voting clerks are responsible for displaying ballot papers for all political parties who have received more than one percent of the vote nationally over the last two elections, and for all parties which are already represented in the municipal and regional governments.

What happens if I spell a party or candidate’s name wrong when filling in a ballot paper myself? 

If if it possible to interpret what you mean, your vote will still be counted. 

Can I vote without an ID card? 

Yes you can, but someone has to come with you who can confirm your identity. 

Can I vote without my voting card? 

If you know which polling station you are registered at, and have proof of your identity, they will let you vote even if you have lost your voting card. 

Can I ask someone to vote for me if I can’t get to the polling station myself? 

Yes, you can appoint a proxy as your representative, if you are too old, sick, or disabled to vote yourself. If you cannot find a suitable person, if you contact your municipality, they can send a travelling election clerk to your home. 

If you are in prison or pre-trial detention, the prison wardens will also help you to arrange a proxy vote. 

What can make my vote illegitimate? 

Your vote will be ruled illegitimate if you vote for a party which has no candidates in the election, if your ballot paper is completely blank and lacks a party name, or if the voting envelope contains two or more ballot papers, or if it in some way reveals the identity of the voter. 

Can you change your mind? 

If you voted early, it is possible to change your mind simply by voting again at the polling station where you are registered. Your new vote will then take precedence. 

Once you have voted on voting day at your polling station, however, it is too late to change your mind.

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SWEDEN ELECTS

Sweden Elects: New finance minister under fire after first long interview

In our weekly Sweden Elects newsletter, The Local's editor Emma Löfgren explains the key events to keep an eye on in Swedish politics this week.

Published: 14 November 2022 08:37 CET
Sweden Elects: New finance minister under fire after first long interview

Hej,

Elisabeth Svantesson has given her first long interview as finance minister, speaking to the Svenska Dagbladet daily just days after she presented her first budget on behalf of Sweden’s new, right-wing government.

The government has already faced accusations of deprioritising the climate crisis, and Svantesson conceded in the interview that its planned investment in nuclear power (which is a low-emission source of energy, but takes time to develop, so it pays off only in the long run) would also make it difficult to reach Sweden’s climate targets within the next decade.

Asked what will happen if Sweden does not meet its Agenda 2030 target, the sustainable development targets agreed by the United Nations, by that year, she said: “It would mean that we don’t meet the targets. If we don’t we don’t, but our ambition is to steer towards that goal.”

That quote, which was perceived as far more laissez-faire than the situation warrants, was met with criticism from the opposition.

“I’m astounded at how you sign agreements and vote for legislation in parliament only to ignore it when you feel like it,” said Green Party leader Per Bolund.

The Social Democrats’ former finance minister Mikael Damberg gave a diplomatic-or-patronising answer (a school of conflict avoidance that can be perfected only by a party that’s more used to being in power than not being in power) and guessed that Svantesson had perhaps not meant it like that. “Svantesson has had a lot to do this week, maybe she’s tired.”

Speaking of interviews, one Swedish newsroom has not yet been getting them, at least not with senior ministers. One of public broadcaster SVT’s top political interviewers, Anders Holmberg, points out that all four right-wing party leaders and several ministers have declined to appear on his “30 minuter”, a show famous for putting hard-hitting questions to politicians and senior decision-makers. It’s of course not mandatory to say yes to all interviews even as a politician, but it’s an unusual move.

It’s interesting that Bolund tried to attack Svantesson specifically on not following through on commitments. This has been a recurring piece of criticism since the new government was elected two months ago.

The budget was more conservative (in this particular case I mean conservative as in cautious rather than as in right-wing) than you might have expected based on the government’s election pledges, and it’s not the only campaign promise that they’ve been forced to backtrack on.

“The central thing is that they’re breaking most of their major election promises at the same time as as they’re not really managing to take care of the big social problems Sweden faces today,” Damberg told SVT.

To be fair, you would kind of expect him to say this (when has a political opposition party ever praised the government’s budget?), but significantly, the criticism hasn’t only come from the left-wing opposition.

Moderate Party politicians in the powerful Skåne region earlier this month slammed their party for failing to deliver the promised support to those suffering sky high power bills in the southern Swedish county.

“There are effectively no reforms, and they’re not putting in place the policies they campaigned for in the election,” the head of the liberal think tank Timbro told the Aftonbladet newspaper about the budget.

It will be interesting to see whether the label as “promise breakers” sticks, and whether that will affect the right-wing parties in the next election.

Did you know?

Parties make more and more pledges during election campaigns. Ahead of the 2014 election, a whopping 1,848 vallöften (election promises) were made, according to research by Gothenburg University, up from 326 in 1994.

You may not believe this, because the stereotypical image of the dishonest politician perhaps unfairly endures, but research shows that most politicians keep most of their election promises most of the time.

Swedish parties in a single-party government and coalition governments with a joint manifesto tend to deliver on between 80 and 90 percent of their vallöften, according to political scientist Elin Naurin. For coalition governments without a joint manifesto, it ranges from 50 to 70 percent.

In other news

the deputy mayor of the town of Norrtälje, who got 15 seconds – technically 26 seconds – of fame after he was left speechless when a reporter asked him to defend hefty pay rises for top councillors has resigned, saying he wants to take responsibility for what happened.

He also told SVT about his long and very awkward silence on camera that his brain had simply blacked out after having worked for 13 hours straight and gone nine hours without food in the post-election frenzy.

Sweden Elects is a weekly column by Editor Emma Löfgren looking at the big talking points and issues after the Swedish election. Members of The Local Sweden can sign up to receive the column as a newsletter in their email inbox each week. Just click on this “newsletters” option or visit the menu bar.

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