Guidance for Returning Officers administering Local Government Elections in England

You must issue postal votes to electors as soon as is practicable.1  In practice, this means at any time after the details to be printed on the ballot papers have been confirmed, i.e. after the deadline for withdrawals, which is 4pm on the last day for the delivery of nomination papers.

The early dispatch of postal votes will maximise the time available for electors – especially service voters and those who have requested that their postal pack is sent to an overseas address – to receive, complete and return their postal votes. You can find more information in our guidance: Issuing and distributing postal votes

You may only issue a postal vote to someone who has been added to the electoral register and has made a successful application for a postal vote. The ERO is required to publish two interim election notices of alteration before publishing the final election notice of alteration, 5  working days before the poll.2 This supports the dispatch of postal votes at an early stage in the timetable to those electors who have applied to register and applied for a postal vote close to the registration deadline. More information is available in our guidance for EROs: election notices of alteration

If you are not also the ERO, you should liaise with them to obtain the postal voters’ list and the postal proxy voters’ list as soon as possible after the publication of the first interim election notice of alteration to include these electors in the initial dispatch of postal votes. This notice must be published on the same day as the deadline for the delivery of nomination papers.3

You will also need to liaise with the ERO to obtain any subsequent updates once the second interim election notice of alteration and the final election notice of alteration have been published.

You can find further information on interim notices of alteration in our guidance for EROs.

Our template election timetables for local government elections in England also include the relevant publication dates for these notices.

Deadlines for absent vote applications and requests for changes to existing arrangements

The deadline for electors to submit new postal and postal proxy applications is 5pm, 11 working days before polling day. This is also the deadline:

• to cancel existing postal votes 
• for electors to make changes (i.e. amending the delivery address) to any existing absent vote (i.e. postal, proxy and postal proxy) arrangements 

If, however, an elector is an existing postal voter and has already returned their postal ballot paper, they cannot make changes after that time, even if this is before 5pm, 11 working days before polling day.4

The deadline for new proxy applications (not postal proxy), excluding emergency proxy applications, is 5pm, 6 working days before polling day.5

The deadline for emergency proxy applications is 5pm on polling day.6  You can find more information in our guidance: voting by emergency proxy.

This table summarises the deadlines for easy reference:
 

The ERO will provide you with the final lists of absent voters, i.e. the list of postal voters, the list of postal proxy voters and the list of proxies, after the deadline for applications has passed.

Delays to determination

An absent vote cannot be granted until both the registration and absent vote applications have been positively determined. 

Where a completed registration application is made by the deadline but the applicant's identity cannot be verified against DWP records or through local data matching, the ERO has until the determination deadline for applications, which is 6 working days before the poll to receive the required evidence from the applicant under the exceptions process and make a determination. 

However, If an elector applying for a postal vote close to the deadline for a poll fails the DWP check, their application can be determined using the exceptions or attestation process up to and including polling day. There is no deadline in law for postal vote determination. 

Whilst the processing of applications is the responsibility of the ERO, the RO is responsible for the issuing of postal ballot packs and producing polling station registers. You should liaise with the ERO (where you are not also the ERO) to establish the latest practicable point for determination of postal vote applications for each poll to ensure that it enables you and the ERO to conduct your duties effectively.

As part of this you and the ERO should consider:

• the importance of supporting electors to be able to vote in the way they have chosen, and providing a consistent service to all electors
• the time it takes to issue postal ballots in time to be received and returned
• the provisions and timetable for reissuing postal ballots
• the need to produce complete and accurate polling station registers in advance of polling day

Whilst the decision on what will be practicable will be a matter for you and the relevant ERO, we recommend that any determination deadline you set should be no earlier than 5pm, 6 working days before the poll. This recommendation is guidance only, it is not mandatory, however it would enable the ERO to meet their obligation to make the absent voter lists available for inspection and to send them to you (where you are not also the ERO), as soon as is practicable .

The postal vote will then need to be dispatched, and the voter will need to receive, complete and return their postal vote by 10pm on polling day.