Guidance for Returning Officers administering a Senedd election

You must provide each Presiding Officer with the appropriate part of the register for their polling station and appropriate absent voting lists.1 The register can be provided in paper or electronic form.2

Polling station staff should have been trained on the various franchise markers that will appear on the register. They need to be aware of the importance of the security of voters’ personal details on the electoral register and absent voting lists.

Printed copies of the polling station registers can be printed once the final election notice of alteration has been published, five working days before polling day. However, you should ensure that all polling station registers:

• are checked to ensure that they are complete
• reflect any recent additions or deletions to the register 
• have the appropriate franchise markers in place

You should instruct your Presiding Officers to check that:

• they have been provided with the correct register for their polling station and  
• the register includes the expected number of electors allocated to their polling station

Alterations to the register

You should have procedures in place to deal with any necessary amendments made before polling day or on polling day itself. These procedures should cover your method:

• to amend the polling station registers and proxy lists as a result of correcting clerical errors, granting of emergency proxy applications, or court decisions on registration appeals
• for communicating the relevant information to Presiding Officers, which may be done orally or in writing

If a person makes a complaint to polling station staff that suggests that they should be on the electoral register, the Presiding Officer should communicate that representation to the ERO as soon as is practicable. For this to work effectively there will need to be suitable communication systems in place between Presiding Officers and the ERO.

More information about clerical errors can be found in our guidance for EROs. 

For more information on training see our guidance on training presiding officers, poll clerks and polling station inspectors.