Elections, voting from abroad

How does it work?

The Hague municipality arranges elections for all voters outside the Netherlands. For more information, visit the Voters outside the Netherlands page on the Hague municipality website. 

What to do?

Temporarily abroad?

If you are temporarily abroad while there are elections in the Netherlands, you can still vote.

• You fill out an authorization form from the municipality.
• You and the person you authorize both sign the authorization form.
• You must submit the authorization form to your municipality no later than 5 days before the election.
• The municipality will send you a notice that your application has been approved.
• The municipality sends a proxy card to the person you have authorized. With this proxy card, this person can vote for you.

• In municipal, provincial and water board elections, you can only authorize someone else to vote for you. Postal voting is not possible in these elections.
• Complete the form to register and request a letter ballot. This form is available on the municipality of The Hague website 6 months before the election.
• Sign the form.
• Upload the form with a copy of your valid ID to the Elections Department of the Municipality of The Hague.

Voting if you live abroad

• You register yourself once with the municipality of The Hague.
• The documents with which you can vote are automatically mailed to you at each election of consultative referendums, the House of Representatives and the European Parliament. Therefore, re-registration for each election is not necessary.

Voting and temporary residence abroad

There are 2 ways to vote for a voter who is temporarily abroad for work or study, for example. The voter can choose to vote by written proxy. The application for this (model L 8) is made through the voter's own municipality. The form can be downloaded here .

PDF download

The other option the voter has is to vote by mail himself. This voter must have a foreign mailing address. The voter makes an application to the municipality of The Hague. This can be done through a form (model M 3) on our website: The Hague - Temporary abroad during the elections to the House of Representatives. The voter must ensure that the complete application, signed and with copy of the valid Dutch identity document, is received by the municipality of The Hague no later than October 25, 2023.

We (Hague municipality) assess the application and send the voter a letter ballot at the temporary foreign address. We then inform the resident municipality by e-mail. If it concerns a voter registered in your municipality, it is your job to make sure that this voter no longer receives a voting pass, or that it is invalidated. Also, the voter should not be able to cast the vote by proxy or with a voter ID card.

Note: the voter obviously remains registered at the address of the Dutch resident municipality. 

Additional information

If you are registered as a voter abroad and you move to a different address abroad, please notify to the Hague municipality. That way your address will remain current.