Elections to East Ayrshire Council were held on 3 May 2012, the same day as the other Scottish local government elections. The election is the second using 9 new wards created as a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, each ward elected three or four councillors using the single transferable vote system form of proportional representation. The new wards replaced 32 single-member wards which used the plurality (first past the post) system of election.