Municipal council and county council elections

All Norwegian citizens who are at least 18 years old by the end of the election year are eligible to vote. In addition, citizens from Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Finland also have the right to vote if they have been registered as residing in Norway by no later than 30 June of the election year. Other foreign citizens have the right to vote if they have been registered in the National Population Registry as resident in the country for three consecutive years before election day.

Everyone wanting to vote must be included in the electoral register of a municipality. The electoral register is an overview of eligible voters in a municipality. Voters are entered onto the electoral register in the municipality where they were registered with an address on 30 June of the election year. People who have been living abroad for more than ten consecutive years must apply to be entered onto the electoral register in the municipality where they were last registered in.

At a basic level, everyone who has the right to vote in an election, and who is registered in the National Population Registry as resident in the municipality/county authority on election day, can stand for election.

In order to be elected, you must be on a list. Both registered political parties and other groups can put forward a list for elections. To stand for election, a list proposal must first be drawn up. The list proposals should include the names of the candidates standing for election for the party/group. The list proposals form the basis of what will be the party/group’s ballot paper. List proposals for municipal council election need to be approved by the municipal electoral committee, while the list proposals for county council elections are approved by the county electoral committee. The list proposals need to be submitted to the municipality or county authority by no later than 31 March of the election year.

However, some people cannot stand for election. This applies to County Governors and Deputy County Governors, municipal directors and their deputies, as well as heads of municipal affairs, heads of departments or managers at the equivalent level in the municipality or county authority. You also cannot stand for election if you are a secretary of the municipal council or county council, responsible for the accounting function or carry out audits for the municipality or county authority.

All voters can vote in advance, i.e., before election day. The ordinary domestic advance voting period starts on 10 August of the election year and lasts until the last Friday before election day.

Municipalities are responsible for receiving domestically-cast advance votes. The municipal electoral committee decides on which premises it is possible to vote in. The municipality is also obliged to receive advance votes at health and social institutions in the municipality. Voters who cannot attend a polling station due to an illness or disability can contact the municipality about voting from home, which is known as ambulatory voting. Two election workers from the municipality will come to the voter’s home.

It is possible to vote in advance in any municipality in the country, meaning that it is not necessary to vote in the municipality you live and are registered in. Votes received in a different municipality to the one where the voter is registered will be sent over to the correct municipality.

Voters that are not able to vote within the ordinary advance voting period or on election day can contact their municipality about casting an early vote. The early voting period starts on 1 July of the election year and lasts until ordinary advance voting period begins on 10 August. The early voting period and the ordinary advance voting period differ primarily in that, for the former, there is no requirement for two returning officers, and that ballot papers are placed in envelopes. During the early voting period, there is also no guarantee that the ballot papers for the various parties/lists standing for election will have been finalised, meaning that the voter must use a party ballot paper* where the voter places a cross by the party/list they want to vote for.

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*A party ballot paper is a ballot paper that contains the names of the registered political parties. Party ballot papers are the same for the entire country. When this is used, the voter ticks off the party they wish to vote for. Since the party ballot papers do not contain the names of candidates standing for election, it is not possible to cast personal votes.

On election day, voters can only vote in the municipality where they are registered, that is, the municipality where they were registered as resident on the National Population Registry on 30 June of the election year. If you are unsure of where you are registered to vote, this information will be stated on the polling card sent out to everyone who has the right to vote.

The municipal electoral committee decides how many polling districts the municipality should be divided into, which in practice is also a decision of how many polling stations there should be. The electoral committee shall also notify voters of when and where voting will take place on election day. No polling station can be open past 21.00 on election day. Municipalities can also decide that elections can be held on the Sunday before the official election day. Each polling station has a polling committee, which is responsible for conducting the election at the polling station.

Voting normally takes place in the following way:

• The voter will be welcomed by an election worker who provides them with information and shows the voter to a polling booth. The voter must be alone in the polling booth so that no one else is able to find out how they have voted.
• Inside the booth, the voter takes the ballot paper of the party or list they wish to vote for and makes the changes they want to the ballot paper.
• The voter folds the ballot paper so that no one can see how they have voted before they leave the booth and hand over their vote.
• Two election workers must accept the vote. The voter provides identification so that the election workers are able to check that the voter is on the electoral register and that the voter is not recorded as having already voted.
• Election workers stamp the ballot paper and the voter places the ballot paper in the ballot box.
• When the ballot paper has been placed in the ballot box, the election works cross off in the electoral register that the voter has voted.

To ensure that the election is conducted in a responsible and proper manner, there are certain rules of public order in the Election Act that must be adhered to in polling stations. For example, there is a prohibition against election campaign activities in the polling station and in the areas voters must pass through to reach the polling station. It is also not legal to take actions that may disrupt or prevent the regular election process. Furthermore, it is not legal to carry out voter polls or similar questions in polling stations or the areas that have to be passed through to reach them. The chair or deputy chair of the polling committee can, if necessary, turn away people acting against these rules. It is also not legal to provide information to outsiders, for example the press, about the use of the different parties’ or lists’ ballot papers.

Voters that do not live in Norway are able to participate in elections. Voters living abroad, on Svalbard or Jan Mayen are only able to vote in advance. Advance voting abroad and on Svalbard and Jan Mayen starts on 1 July of the election year. On Svalbard, the Governor can decide that voting should end earlier than the last Friday before election day.

Votes from abroad, Svalbard and Jan Mayen must be sent to the correct municipality. Voters themselves are responsible for their vote reaching the electoral committee in the municipality the voter belongs to before 17.00 on the day after election day.

Voters voting from aboard will, as a rule, vote at a Norwegian foreign service mission or other place where the Ministry has appointed returning officers. Before each election, it will be possible to find out information about where you can vote if you are abroad on valg.no.

If a voter abroad is not able to find a returning officer, the voter can vote by post without there being a returning officer present when voting. The voter can arrange the voting themselves, either by using materials they have acquired from the foreign service mission or returning officer, or by using their own ballot papers and envelopes. Postal votes are currently only allowed in special circumstances and are only for voters abroad who otherwise would not have had the opportunity to vote.

For municipal council and county council elections, voters can, in addition to choosing between different parties and lists, also influence which of the candidates will be elected by casting a personal vote for candidates on the list. The changes that can be made to the ballot paper are different for municipal council elections and county council elections.

For municipal council election, voters can cast a personal vote to as many candidates as they would like. This is done by placing a cross in a box by the name of the candidate(s) they want to cast a personal vote for. By casting a personal vote, they increase the chances of a candidate being elected. There is also the opportunity to enter candidates from other lists, so-called ‘cross-party’ votes. A cross-party vote is cast by writing the name of the candidate(s) in a separate field on the ballot paper. When the voter casts a personal vote for candidates on other lists, a corresponding number of list votes are transferred to the list or lists on which these candidates appear from the list the voter votes for. See the answers to questions about vote counting below for more information on list votes.

For county council elections, voters can also cast personal votes for as many of the candidates as they want to by placing a cross in a box next to the name of the candidate(s) they want to cast a personal vote for. However, it is not possible to cast a personal vote for candidates on other lists.

Once voting has closed on election day, the votes will be counted. The electoral committee in the municipality is responsible for the count taking place in accordance with regulations at all elections. During the count, you find out how many voters have voted for each party or list and the changes voters have made to their ballot papers. Ballot papers cast in advance and ballot papers cast on election day(s) must be kept separate and registered individually.

The count in municipalities takes place in two rounds – a preliminary and a final count. For county council elections, there is a third count where the county electoral committee is sent the ballot papers from all the municipalities in the council.

The preliminary count is a simplified count where only the ballot papers that are in no doubt about their approval are counted. Here, only the number of votes each party or list has received are counted, and the purpose of this is to quickly produce a preliminary result. The count is done manually. Counting votes cast on election day shall start as soon as polling stations close. The electoral committee in the municipality decides whether ballot papers should be counted in each polling station, or centrally in the municipality. Counting of advance votes can start no earlier than the day before election day, and later than four hours before polling stations in municipalities close. The exception is if there are so few advance votes that a count will reveal how an individual voter has voted. In such cases, the count shall be postponed until all advance voting has been approved, so that voters’ anonymity for how they have voted can be safeguarded.

In the final count, all ballot papers are recounted. This is done centrally in municipalities. The electoral committee shall then decide on whether ballot papers that had previously been set aside as doubtful will be approved or rejected. In the final count, the municipalities can decide whether they want to do a manual count or use optical scanners.

For the final count of ballot papers for municipal council election, the electoral committee registers the changes the voters have made to the ballot papers. This lays the groundwork for the determination of the election result that the electoral committee shall make.

For county council elections, it is the county electoral committee that registers the changes voters have made to ballot papers. The municipal electoral committee only makes a decision about whether doubtful votes should be approved or rejected, and carries out a new count of all ballot papers. Then, the ballot papers* for county council elections are sent to the county authority. The county electoral committee checks the municipalities’ counting and must therefore count the votes again. The county electoral committee shall correct errors they uncover that occurred during the municipalities’ vote count.

Both the polling committees in the polling stations, the municipal electoral committees and the county electoral committees have to keep a protocol containing the result of the count, decisions on rejecting ballot papers and similar circumstances. The protocols shall be published and will be available on valgresultater.no.

*Ballot papers that cannot be immediately approved, for example because they have not been stamped.

Once the counting is finished, the electoral committee makes a determination of the election result. The determination of the election result consists of two parts. First, they find out how many representatives (seats) each party/list will receive, then the individual candidates that will be elected from the different parties/lists will be selected. For municipal council election, it is the electoral committee that carries out the determination of the election result, while the county electoral committee carries out the determination of the election result for county council elections.

Step one – allocation of seats

In order to allocate seats, a calculation method called the modified Sainte-Laguës method is used. This is the same for all elections. The method is based on distributing seats proportionally between the parties/lists according to the number of votes they have received. The modified Sainte-Laguës method starts with the individual list’s number of votes being divided by 1.4, and then by 3, 5, 7, 9, etc. Through these divisions, a range of figures is reached called quotients. Quotients are arranged according to size, and seats are distributed to the lists that have the largest quotients. The first seat goes to the list with the largest quotient, the second to the list with the second largest, etc. This goes on until all seats that need to be filled are filled.

An example of the determination of the election result under the modified Sainte-Laguës method is shown in the table below, where 11 seats need to be allocated. In this example, consideration has not been made for the fact that municipal council election can cast cross-party votes, which can also affect the allocation between parties.

Party A receives seats 1, 4, 7 and 10.
Party B receives seats 2, 5, 8 and 11.
Party C receives seats 3 and 9.
Party D receives seat 6.
Party E and Party F receive no seats.

Step two – returning of members

When it has been decided how many representatives a party or list will have, the seats are allocated to the candidates on the list. The returning of members takes place based on the candidates personal number of votes.

For municipal council election, the candidates are ranked according to who received the most personal votes. The number of personal votes for a candidate is calculated in the following way:

• Candidates who the party/list have given an increased share of the poll are indicated in boldface at the top of the ballot paper. This means that they receive an increased share of their personal number of votes, which involves an increase in the number of personal votes equivalent to 25 per cent of the number of voters who have voted for the list. If a party receives 100 votes, the candidates in boldface receive 25 personal votes, regardless of whether voters have placed a cross next to these candidates’ names. Parties and lists can give an increased share of the poll to a limited number of candidates.
• Having calculated the increased share, personal votes voters have cast for the various candidates are added. Personal votes from each party/list’s voters and personal votes from other parties or lists’ voters (cross-party votes) carry the same weight.
• Candidates are returned in order of who had the highest number of personal votes.

The returning of members for county council elections is slightly different than for municipal council elections. Candidates must have received personal votes from at least eight per cent of the party/list’s voters for the personal votes to form the basis of the order in which candidates are elected. Candidates that have received personal votes from at least eight per cent of the party/list’s voters are given preference to candidates that have not received as many personal votes. For all other candidates that have not received at least eight per cent of personal votes, the order on the list will be used as the basis for returning members. How members can be returned for county council elections is shown in the table below. In this imaginary example, the list has received a total of 1,000 votes.

* Personal votes exceed 8% of the number of votes for the list. Candidates are returned first based on the personal number of votes. Then, the other candidates are returned in line with the order they are placed on the list.

Everyone who has the right to vote can appeal conditions relating to the preparations of the election in the county or municipality they are registered to vote in. If the appeal relates to issues around the right to vote or access to voting, those not registered in the electoral register also have the right to appeal. In principle, any conditions can be appealed as long as they are related in some way to the preparation and implementation of the election.

Appeals must be brought within seven days after election day. It is also possible to appeal against conditions that apply to election preparations before this. Appeals against the election results at municipal council elections and county council elections must be brought within seven days after the determination of the election result has been approved by the municipal council/county council.

For the 2023 municipal council and county council election, the Ministry is the appellate instance for municipal council and county council elections. Decisions that the Ministry makes regarding appeals are final and cannot be reviewed by the courts. The Storting has approved new rules of appeal, which include the National Electoral Committee becoming the appellate instance for municipal council and county council elections. The new rules will be valid for the 2027 municipal council and county council elections.

Municipalities are responsible for the practical implementation of all elections. There shall be an electoral committee in each municipality, which is elected by the municipal council. The electoral committee is responsible for the implementation of the election in the municipality.

The electoral committee is responsible for, among other things, receiving and handling list proposals for municipal council election, setting the polling districts the municipality shall be divided into and the polling stations that shall be used on election day and during the advance voting period, counting votes, the election result and handling appeals.

The county electoral committee is responsible for the county authority’s tasks relating to conducting elections. The county electoral committee is elected by the county council. In connection with county council elections, the county electoral committee is responsible for receiving and handling list proposals for the county council election, the final count of votes for county council elections, the election result and handling appeals.

For county council elections and parliamentary elections, it is the county electoral committee that registers the changes voters have made to ballot papers. When they have counted the votes, the municipal electoral committee sends the ballot papers to the county electoral committee, which is responsible for the determination of election result for all municipalities in the county. The county electoral committee shall check the electoral committee’s counting, which involves counting the votes again. If any electoral committee has made errors in the count or in relation to the approval or rejection of votes, the county electoral committee shall correct the errors.

The primary task of the Norwegian Directorate of Elections is to support municipalities and county authorities in the practical implementation of elections. The Directorate operates and manages the electronic election management system EVA, which is used by municipalities and county authorities in connection with the election process. The Directorate is also responsible for voters having access to information about how they can vote.

You can find more information about the Norwegian Directorate of Elections at valg.no.

The Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development is the national electoral authority and has overall responsibility for the election process in Norway. The Ministry’s responsibility for elections includes, amongst other things, the administration of the Election Act and its associated regulations, agency management for the Norwegian Directorate of Elections, accreditation and receipt of election observers and international guests for the election and research and development work related to elections. For the 2023 local elections, the Ministry is also the final appeals body.