Vote

Who can vote?

  • European Union, Norway and Iceland citizens (from the moment you receive a yellow card) 
  • People from outside European Union that arrived before 16 November 2017 
  • People from United Kingdom that arrived before 31 January 2020
Voting for the president

How and when can you vote?

The voting day is on 16th November 2021. You will receive in your mailbox (4 days earlier) an election card (valgkort), that will indicate where your voting section is. If you don’t receive an election card, go with your yellow card to the nearest school and there you will receive an election card. You vote by putting an “x” on the side of the candidate that you support. You can only put one “x” on each voting list (local and regional) (basically you have 2 “x”).

If you don’t have time to vote on 16th November 2021, you can vote earlier. In the time between 5th October and 12th November 2021, you can go with your yellow card at the closest “bibliotek” or “borgerservice” and vote there. The voting procedure is a bit different as you need to write the name of the candidate. You will receive two envelopes (a blue one for local council and a yellow one for regional council). You can write one name inside each envelope.

Remember that you have 2 votes – one for each council

What do you fote for?

Local Council
The highest decision-making forum in your municipality (kommune). The local council is led by the mayor (borgmester), which is chosen from among the elected councilmans. The main areas of responsibility: city planning, early education, jobcenter, elderly care, culture, etc.
Regional Council
The highest decision-making forum in your region (Denmark is divided into five regions). The regional council is led by the president (Regionsrådsformand), which is chosen from among the elected councilmans. The main areas of responsibility: healthcare system; special sector system; regional development.

How do you become a candidate?

If you have the right to vote, you also have the right to become a candidate. 

You can join a political party – ask to be on the candidates list

You can run as an independent – you just need to gather 25 signatures (exception – (Aalborg, Aarhus, Odense – 50 signatures) (Copenhagen – 150 signatures) – You need to submit your application no later than 28 September 2021.

You can run together with other independent candidates on the same list – you just need to gather 25 signatures (exception – (Aalborg, Aarhus, Odense – 50 signatures) (Copenhagen – 150 signatures) – You need to submit your application no later than 28 September 2021

If you want to run for Regional Council, as an independent or on a list with other independents, you need to gather 50 signatures from the region you want to represent.

What is the voting system?

In 2017, 35,000 people voted for the Local Council of Frederikshavn. There are 29 seats în the Local Council. The social democrat list of candidates gathered 60% of the votes, which means they obtained 18 seats out of 29. The 18 seats have been distributed to the most voted candidates from the social democrat list. The first one entered with 15,000 personal votes, while the last one entered with 100 personal votes. The social democrats have the majority in the Local Council and therefore elect one of them as “borgmester” or mayor.