Guidance for (Acting) Returning Officers administering a UK Parliamentary election in Great Britain

If a person spoils their postal ballot paper and/or postal voting statement, it is possible for them to obtain a replacement postal ballot pack. Replacements can be issued up until 5pm on polling day.1

All parts of the postal vote pack must be returned before a replacement can be issued, regardless of whether or not these have been spoilt.2  This includes:

• the spoilt postal ballot paper or the spoilt postal voting statement along with any remaining ballot papers or postal voting statement 
• return envelope ‘B’ 
• ballot paper envelope ‘A’

A new postal ballot pack can then be issued to the elector.

The legislation requires that any returned spoilt ballot papers and postal voting statements must be cancelled and sealed in a packet for spoilt postal ballot papers, even if only one of them has actually been spoiled.3

In certain circumstances you can cancel a postal vote which is considered spoilt, even if it has been returned to the RO. In this case, the spoilt ballot paper and postal voting statement must be retrieved and sealed as described above4 .

If the request for a replacement postal ballot pack is made between 5pm on the day before polling day and 5pm on polling day itself the replacement postal vote may only be issued to the elector if the spoilt documents are returned by hand.5  In such cases, the issue of a replacement can also only be made by hand.

You must put in place systems to enable you to issue replacements up to 5pm on polling day.6  You will need to give particular consideration to this if you have outsourced the issue of postal votes.

You should consider whether or not particular arrangements need to be put in place for disabled electors when making arrangements to re-issue spoilt ballot papers, as there may be some electors who are unable to attend the elections office due to disability.

Record keeping for spoilt postal ballot papers7

The elector’s name and electoral number must be added to the list of spoilt postal ballot papersto show that the spoilt postal vote has been cancelled. The name must not, however, be added if the elector is registered anonymously. The ballot paper number of the replacement ballot paper must also be added to the list. In the case of a postal proxy, the name and address of the proxy must be added to the list alongside the other details.

This table summarises the procedure for re-issuing spoilt postal votes:
 

For the purposes of collating data for the statement of postal ballot papers (Form K),8  you should also add the details of any spoilt ballot papers which have been cancelled to the list of all cancelled postal ballot papers (see our guidance on record keeping for cancelled ballot papers).