Guidance for Returning Officers administering a Senedd election

The processes for opening postal ballot packs is set out in legislation.1

Stage 1 - Opening of the postal voters’ ballot box

• count and record the number of returned postal ballot packs (i.e., the number of covering envelopes in the postal voters’ ballot box)
• open covering envelope and check it contains a postal voting statement and ballot paper envelope
  • if the envelope contains a postal voting statement:2
    • place a mark in the postal voters’ list or postal proxy voters’ list as appropriate to show that a postal voting statement has been returned3
  • if the covering envelope does not contain a postal voting statement:4
    • mark the covering envelope with the words provisionally rejected/ gwrthodwyd dros dro, attach its contents and place in the receptacle for rejected votes

Stage 2 - Checking the personal identifiers5  

You must be satisfied that the postal voting statement is duly completed. You must:

• check that the elector has signed the statement and given a date of birth
• check the signature and date of birth on the postal voting statement matches those on the personal identifiers record
  • if you are satisfied that the postal voting statement is duly completed:6
    • check the number on the postal voting statement matches the number on the ballot paper envelope (envelope A)7
    • place the statement in the receptable for postal voting statements (verification procedure)
    • place the ballot paper envelope in the receptable for ballot paper envelopes
  • if you are not satisfied that the postal voting statement has been duly completed:8
    • reject the postal voting statement, you must mark the statement rejected/gwrthodwyd, attach to it the ballot paper envelope (if there is no such envelope you must attach it to the ballot paper) and place it in the receptacle for rejected votes (verification procedure)
    • before placing it in the receptacle rejected votes(verification procedure), you must show it to any agents present, permit them to view the entries in the personal identifiers record which relate to the person to whom the postal voting statement was addressed and, if any of them object to your decision, add the words rejection objected to/gwrthwynebwyd y gwrthodiad on the postal voting statement. You should also record the reason for the rejection

Stage 3 - Opening of postal ballot paper envelopes9  

• open the ballot paper envelope (envelope A) and remove the ballot paper ensuring the ballot paper is kept face down at all times10
• check the number on the ballot paper envelope (envelope A) matches the number on the back of the ballot paper
• place the ballot paper in postal ballot box(es)
• if the ballot paper number on the ballot paper envelope does not match number on back to the ballot paper, add the words provisionally rejected/gwrthodwyd dros dro, attach to the ballot paper envelope and place in the receptacle for rejected votes
• if the ballot paper envelope does not contain a ballot paper, write on the ballot paper envelope that the ballot paper is missing, add the words provisionally rejected and place in receptacle for rejected ballot paper envelopes/gwrthodwyd dros dro

Stage 4 - Sealing the postal ballot boxes

• count and record the number of postal ballot papers to be sealed in each postal ballot box
• seal and securely store the postal ballot box(es)11

You can find a postal vote opening flowchart in the absent voting section of our resources page.

You should batch ballot papers in such a way as to ensure that you will be able to retrieve and cancel any particular ballot paper (for example, because you have had to re-issue following a procedural error).

For this reason, and because of the need to verify the contents of all postal ballot boxes at the verification, you should consider how many ballot papers you want to store in each box.

Matching up postal voting statements with postal ballot papers12

You must keep two lists of provisionally rejected postal ballot papers:

• one to record the ballot paper number of any postal ballot paper that has been returned without a postal voting statement
• one to record the ballot paper number on any postal voting statement that was not returned with the ballot paper

You can find a postal vote matching spreadsheet in the absent voting section of our resources page.

You should check these lists regularly to ensure that any mismatched documents can be matched up, enabling those postal ballots to be re-introduced into the process.