Guidance for Returning Officers administering a Senedd election

Postal voters can return their postal vote by hand to any polling station in the constituency.1

You should make sure polling station staff can identify which postal votes can be returned to their polling station. For more information on training staff please see our guidance on training presiding officers, poll clerks and polling station inspectors.

You must provide polling stations with packets for received postal votes.1 The number and style of packets should, as a minimum, be based on returns at the last equivalent polls, but you should keep in mind the potential for late engagement and interest in the election, and any local or national issues which may affect turnout. 

Records of all such packets should be kept so that each one can be accounted for. The packets should be clearly labelled and state:

• they contain postal votes
• the name of the polling station and polling station identifier

Security of returned postal votes

You should ensure that the packets are capable of being securely sealed.

Polling agents are entitled to attach their seal to sealed packets before they are removed from the polling station and must therefore be permitted to do so.1

As part of your training you should emphasise to Presiding Officers the importance of maintaining the security of postal votes returned to polling stations. Postal votes should be immediately placed in the relevant packets provided and the Presiding Officer should ensure that the packets are stored securely throughout the day.

You should arrange for postal votes to be collected from polling stations throughout the day as this will help to reduce the number that will have to be dealt with after the close of poll. Polling station inspectors can perform this duty. You should ensure that processes are in place to maintain a clear audit trail and to ensure the security of collected postal vote packets while in transit.