The Electoral Commission is urging voters who cannot make it home on election day to urgently nominate a trusted friend to vote on their behalf before Wednesday’s 5pm deadline.

In an attempt to avoid a repeat of the debacle at the European elections in May when thousands were denied a vote, the commission, along with councils, is heavily promoting the availability of a proxy vote to all voters – domestic and overseas.

“If you’re unable to get to your polling station on 12 December, you’ve got until 5pm to appoint someone you trust to vote on your behalf. Proxy vote forms are available on our website and must be returned to your local authority by 5pm today,” said a spokesman for the commission.

Tom Dempster, a British national who recently moved to North Carolina, in the US, said he had received a communication in the past few days from his West Worcestershire constituency after applying for a postal vote.

“Postal votes are being dispatched around 4 December and I note you are in America. We are advising overseas electors that you may wish to consider a proxy vote as relying on international service to get a postal vote to you and returned in time is a risk. I have attached a proxy vote form for you to consider too,” the council told him in a letter.

A spokeswoman for the Association of Electoral Administrators said the proxy forms could be emailed. “All electoral registration officers will accept a correctly completed and scanned proxy vote application sent via email as long as the signature is clear,” she said.

The Electoral Commission points out that proxy votes are available to anyone registered to vote, including those in the UK.

The official encouragement to nominate a friend or family member to vote on their behalf comes as data shows a rise in the number of overseas voters registering for the election.

Since the general election was called on 24 October, 132,000 Britons overseas have registered to vote. This dwarves the 35,000 overseas voters who were registered in 2015.

The total number of overseas voters is likely to be closer to 300,000, reflecting the rise in the desire to vote since the Brexit referendum, when 264,0000 overseas Britons were registered. This increased to 285,000 for the 2017 election and researchers believe the last-minute search will lead to new records for 2019.

“What we are seeing is a level of engagement from British nationals living abroad that we have never seen before,” said Michaela Benson, the research lead for BrExpats, a research project examining what Brexit means for the 1.2 million Britons living in the EU27.