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:
Ensure that any outstanding activity is up to date, including
concluding reviews and determining any deletions
following up on any outstanding queries, exceptions, and attestations
if you have been undertaking any automatic registration processes, you should plan for any notice periods to have passed and new electors to have been added
checking any individuals held in your system as potential electors who you have not yet been able to add against other records
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.
You should also ensure that your property database is up-to-date by:
ensuring 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
reviewing 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
checking whether the information you hold for empty and void properties is up to date
by identifying local data sources that will contain the information you need to do this, and update your records accordingly