# Removing expired democracy locks
When you [vote for a Governance referendum](broken://pages/2pAmAjc1JDuKJUt9NKaU), your tokens are locked at least while the referendum is up for a vote. Once the referendum ends, the lock may expire or remain in place for a longer period, depending on your conviction and whether you voted with the winning side.
Regardless of the lock period, the lock will eventually expire, and once it does, you need to **manually remove it** to make the locked balance transferable again. The lock isn't removed automatically.
### How to remove expired democracy or referendum locks?
If you voted on referenda, click the arrow icon on the far right of your account, then hover over the little clock icon next to the democracy-locked balance. You can see if there are any locks that have expired:
**To remove an expired democracy lock, follow these steps:**
1. Click on the three dots on the right side of your account.
2. Select "Clear expired democracy locks":
3\. Then simply sign and submit the extrinsic, and all the expired locks will be removed.
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