What action should I take to prepare my register for the national data match step?
Whilst it is important to ensure you have processes in place to maintain your register throughout the year, carrying out additional register maintenance ahead of the national data match step should help to ensure that the information you provide is as accurate and complete as possible.
This should then help to ensure more accurate results, which in turn can help you to maximise the efficiency of your canvass and make best use of your available resources.
This preparatory work should include the following steps:
Ensure that any outstanding activity is up to date
You should, wherever possible, conclude reviews and determine any deletions needed as a result of these prior to the national data match step.
You should ensure that any other required deletions are determined prior to the national data match step.
You should follow up on any outstanding queries, exceptions and attestations to ensure as many electors can be added to your register as possible.
You should check any individuals held in your system as potential electors in properties against other records, or identify any new potential electors that should be added to properties. Potential electors are not registered electors but are individuals who are recorded in your EMS, likely as a result of local data mining or a returned canvass form, who may be eligible but have not yet registered to vote at the address. This information is useful because it may indicate that there are changes required to the register for that property, with individuals potentially being resident who have not yet made a successful application to register. Potential electors at an address may also be indicative of the need to capture additional changes for those individuals who are currently registered at the property.
Ensure that your property database is up-to-date
You should ensure that each address has a unique property reference number (UPRN). If not, you should liaise with the Local Land and Property Gazetteer team to ensure that UPRNs are attached to each property.
You should review any records you hold that will help you to identify certain types of properties and if possible make sure these are reflected in your system – for example, identifying that a property is a care home, house in multiple occupation (HMO) or student accommodation may have an impact on the route you may choose to allocate the property to.
You should check whether the information you hold for empty and void properties is up to date. You should identify which local data sources are available to you that will contain the information you need to do this and update your records accordingly.