At a combined authority mayoral election, you are required by law to produce a booklet that includes election addresses from candidates at the election and are responsible for the delivery of it to each person entitled to vote at the combined authority mayoral election.1
A candidate’s election address must be prepared by their election agent and submitted to you by 4pm on the nineteenth working day before the poll (i.e. by the last time for the delivery of nominations).2
Although it is not a requirement to include the deadline for the delivery of election addresses on the notice of election, you should include it to provide clarity to candidates and agents. Further information on the notice of election is included in our guidance on Production and publication of election notices.
You must only include an election address in the booklet if it is a statement prepared on behalf of a candidate by their election agent that complies with certain legal requirements.
Booklet containing candidates’ addresses
Each candidate at a combined authority mayoral election may provide an election address to the CARO for publication in a booklet to be sent to every eligible elector in the combined local authority area.3
As part of your planning, you will need to consider how you are going to manage this process in practice. As CARO, you have a legal duty to ensure the text included complies with legislative requirements.4
Guidance on the production of the mayoral booklet is included in our section on Production and delivery of the booklet.
You will need to ensure that the booklet containing the election addresses of candidates who have contributed to the production of the booklet is issued in sufficient time to help voters make an informed choice. You should liaise closely with local ROs on a dispatch date so that the first issue of postal votes can be co-ordinated, as far as possible, with the dispatch of the booklet.