Personation is a term used in law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

 for the specific kind of voter fraud where an individual votes in an election

Election

An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...

, whilst pretending to be a different elector.

Many jurisdictions allow electors to nominate an individual to vote on their behalf, in certain circumstances; this is known as proxy voting

Proxy voting

Proxy voting has two forms: delegable voting and delegated voting, which are procedures for the delegation to another member of a voting body of that member's power to vote in his absence, and/or for the selection of additional representatives, as in the case with transitive proxies...

. Whilst voting with an invalid proxy form could be considered personation, it is usual for an intent to deceive

Mens rea

Mens rea is Latin for "guilty mind". In criminal law, it is viewed as one of the necessary elements of a crime. The standard common law test of criminal liability is usually expressed in the Latin phrase, actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea, which means "the act does not make a person guilty...

 to be required for such an act to be considered criminal

Crime

Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...

.

Canada

Personation also appears as a crime in the Canadian Criminal Code with the meaning simply of impersonation.