Working with the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO)
You will need to liaise closely with the ERO to obtain the relevant registration and absent voting data. You should ensure that data protection is considered and that any transfer of data is secure.
If there is a need for exchanging data electronically, you should agree the timings for the exchange of data and ensure that a test of the process is carried out ahead of the first scheduled transfer.
There will be updates to the data at a number of points within the election timetable, as the ERO must publish two interim election notices of alteration as well as the final election notice of alteration.1
For more information see our guidance for EROs.
We have published a timetable containing the dates related to the publication of these notices.
You can find the scheduled and non-scheduled timetables in the planning section of our resources page.
If, as CRO, you are responsible for a constituency that crosses council boundaries you should liaise closely with the ERO and staff for each of the councils to put in place arrangements for the transfer and receipt of data, including any updates following the publication of the interim and final election notices of alteration.
As part of developing these arrangements, you should establish how you will manage the data you receive in practice, including whether your software system can process the data received from the other councils, particularly where they use a different electoral management software system.
For more information on practical issues relating to absent voting in cross boundary constituencies see our guidance on absent voting.