Voting in Finland as an Immigrant
I have lived in Finland for over 7 years now, and have known for awhile that I could vote in some elections such as municipality or EU elections. But, I don’t have a good grasp on the Finnish language and I am generally anxious about ‘official’ situations so I have avoided it. But, I finally bit the bullet and voted! Now I will share my experience to put you at ease 🙂
First of all, it was VERY easy. You can do this! You don’t have to speak word, it’s quite simple.
If you are eligible to vote in an election (you should be after 2 years of residence,) you will receive a letter in the mail telling you so. It will also tell you the location of your polling station. If you live in Helsinki like I do, there are a ton, and you probably won’t have to walk more than 5 mins to the one you are assigned. If you have signed up on Suomi.fi and get digital correspondence, you will get your letter here. I highly suggest you do sign up, as it’s much more convenient than paper letters!
Go to the polling station listed on your letter. There will probably be a line. For me there was an A-M line and an N-Z line, both very short. When you get to the front of the line, simply hand your Finnish ID to the person. They will find your name on the list, check you off, and hand you a ballot.
Next go to the voting booth. There was only three setup at my location because it is so quick. When inside, write the number of the candidate you are voting for in the circle. The names and numbers of all the candidates were posted inside the booth, but I imagine you will already have decided on a person before getting this far!
Finally, hand your ballot to the person by the ballot box. They will put an official stamp on it. Then you drop it in the box and you are done!
TLDR
1.) Get the letter, find location where you are assigned to vote
2.) Show up, bring official ID
3.) Show ID, get ballot
4.) Vote
5.) Get your ballot stamped, and drop it in the box
The entire time the only thing I said was kiitos, so you’re going to be fine!
If you aren’t sure who to vote for, yle.fi had an (in English) survey you could take to help match you up with a candidate of similar beliefs. I imagine they do this for all elections. And you could read more about any candidate you wanted, as well as find their number so you know what number you are writing before you head to the polls!
Best of luck exercising your civic duty! You got this!