Elections 2026 | Nearly half of approved special voters fail to cast ballots

Nearly half of the 2.66-million South Africans approved for special voting failed to cast their ballots during the two-day process ahead of Wednesday’s local government elections.

Electoral Commission figures show that 1,425,942 approved voters cast special ballots on November 2 and 3.

This leaves approximately 1,234,058 approved applicants who did not vote.

The figures translate into a special-vote turnout of about 54%, with roughly 46% of approved voters failing to use the early-voting opportunity.

IEC chairperson Mosotho Moepya said special voting was intended to assist people who would otherwise have been unable to vote on election day.

The process provided “approximately 2.66-million approved voters, who otherwise would have been unable to vote on voting day, an opportunity to cast their vote in advance”, Moepya said.

“At the time of closing, 1,425,942 voters had recorded their special votes from both the 2nd and the 3rd of November.”

Election officials must visit approved home-voting applicants, while voters approved to cast special ballots at stations must present themselves during the designated period.

One in three votes collected at home

Of the 1,425,942 special votes cast, 974,852 were recorded at voting stations. Another 451,090 were collected through home visits.

“Out of these, 974,852 voted at voting stations, and 451,090 voted through home visits,” Moepya said.

Voting-station ballots accounted for 68.4% of the total, while home visits contributed 31.6%.

The figures mean more than two voters cast ballots at voting stations for every voter reached at home.

However, the IEC’s national figures do not establish whether the 46% shortfall came mainly from approved voters failing to visit their stations or election officials failing to reach home-voting applicants.

The commission described the figures as preliminary and said it would complete its reconciliation later on Tuesday night.

“These are preliminary indications which will be finalised later tonight,” Moepya said.

More than 1.2-million votes left unused

The scale of the non-participation is significant because special voting requires prior approval from the IEC.

Unlike ordinary registered voters who may decide on election day whether to participate, the 2.66-million applicants had actively requested permission to vote early.

Yet only about 54 in every 100 approved applicants ultimately cast a ballot.

The unused special-vote opportunity involved more than 1.23-million people, equivalent to about 4.2% of South Africa’s entire registered electorate of 29.2-million.

The 1.43-million special ballots actually cast represent about 4.9% of the national voters’ roll.

Moepya said the commission had nevertheless exceeded the number of special votes cast during the 2021 municipal elections.

“We’ve already exceeded and are doing very well in comparison to 2021, which was an equivalent election,” he said.

The IEC did not provide the 2021 figure during the briefing. This prevented a direct comparison of turnout rates or the number of approved applicants who failed to vote in the two elections.

Ballots secured until counting starts

The special-vote ballots will not be counted or reported separately from Wednesday’s election-day votes.

“The special votes have been securely stored and will be counted together with the November 4, 2026, election-day ballots after the closing of voting stations,” Moepya said.

“This means that the voting-station results will be tallied together with the rest of the results and announced as part of the overall election results per voting station.”

The 1.23-million approved applicants who did not cast special ballots may still vote on Wednesday if the normal election rules permit them to do so.

However, the IEC did not clarify during the briefing how many of these voters would be physically able to reach their registered voting stations after applying for special votes because they expected to be unavailable or unable to travel on election day.