Combined Authority and Combined County Authority Returning Officer guidance for Combined Authority Mayoral elections

You have a legal responsibility to produce and distribute a booklet containing the candidates’ election addresses to every voter in the combined authority area.1

In order to effectively communicate information to electors you should consider who you want to reach through your awareness activity and the method of communication to be used. You should take advice and seek input from relevant staff at the combined authority or other local authorities in the combined authority area, in particular communications and marketing staff. 

Information required by electors in order to successfully participate may include: 

• details of the election itself
• the date and hours of poll 
• the location of polling stations 
• any key deadlines (e.g. deadlines for applying to register to vote, for postal or proxy votes and for applying for a Voter Authority Certificate) 
• how to register to vote
• how to vote (i.e. how to mark the ballot paper(s)) 
• requirement to show an accepted form of photographic ID in order to vote in a polling station
• how to apply for a postal or proxy vote, including the requirement for ID checks
• how to return their postal vote (e.g. by post or in person)
• the number of postal votes that can be handed in by an individual, and the restrictions on who can hand in postal votes
• how to apply for a Voter Authority Certificate or Anonymous Elector's Document
• assistance available to electors and how to request reasonable adjustments (e.g. equipment to enable disabled voters to vote independently in the polling station) and how to request information in alternative formats (e.g. braille, easy read, large print)
• how and when votes are counted 
• how the result will be made known 

In the lead-up to scheduled polls, the Commission may run a public awareness campaign to encourage registration. Such a campaign will usually involve mass media advertising, working with partners and public relations activities. We will also provide resources that can be used locally, such as posters, online banners, template press releases and social media content. 

We will provide you with information on our public awareness campaigns via the EA Bulletin. We also publish a voter registration newsletter, Roll Call, which aims to help local council communications teams stay up-to-date with the latest campaign information and resources. You and your council communications team can sign up to receive the newsletter here.

The Commission also provides absent vote application forms to support electors in the postal and proxy vote application process. 

You should ensure that all outgoing communications provide appropriate contact details to allow anyone to respond and obtain further information. You should consider what contact details are most appropriate in each case, working with local ROs and their staff as required.

You can find further guidance on the production of voter materials for CAROs and quality assuring election materials in our guidance for ROs. 

The public may also proactively make enquiries and you need to consider how a consistent approach to addressing such enquires can be achieved. You could, for example, consider developing agreed responses to FAQs for front line staff. We have developed FAQs for scheduled elections, which also includes Q&A’s in relation to combined authority mayoral elections.

‘Where is my polling station?’ is a common question in the run-up to polling day and on polling day itself. So voters can easily find out where their polling station is, we provide, in partnership with Democracy Club, a postcode search tool on our website. When voters enter their postcode, they are shown when the election is in their area, where their polling station is, and who their candidates are. You could add a link to our website. 

To provide voters with information on polling stations we need you to send us the polling station data for your area if you are also the local RO provided your data is straightforward. Once you have finalised your polling stations, you can export the data from your EMS, and email it to [email protected]. Detailed instructions are available for each supplier, if you need them.

We also provide your contact details in our postcode search tool. If your contact details change we ask that you let us know as soon as possible so that we can update our records.