Guidance for Returning Officers administering Local Government Elections in England

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Nomination form – Subscriber requirements

Nomination forms must include an indication of support for the candidate from two electors registered on the local government register in the ward for a principal area election and in the relevant electoral area for a parish council election. These are known as subscribers - the first one is the proposer and the second one is the seconder.1 There is nothing preventing a candidate from subscribing their own nomination provided they are registered in the ward.

At local authority mayoral elections, 30 registered electors from the local authority area (i.e. the county, district or borough) are required to subscribe the nomination form.3

Each subscriber is required by law to sign the nomination form in the appropriate place.4 They must print their name and include their electoral number in the spaces provided alongside their signature, along with the polling district’s identifying letters.

Once a nomination form has been formally delivered, even if it is later deemed invalid, the signatures of the subscribers will still count towards the number of forms that the subscriber may subscribe.

If an elector is later removed from the register or dies before the election (or indeed even before the nomination is delivered), their signature remains valid and the nomination is not affected.

A person who is shown on the register as being under 18 years old at the time of nomination can only subscribe a nomination form if they will be 18 years old on or before polling day.

At a principal area election and a parish council election, only the first two subscribers on any nomination form can be considered.5 If more subscribers are included, any subsequent names must not be considered at all.6 If one of the two subscribers is invalid, irrespective of whether more subscribers have been added to the nomination form, the nomination form must be held invalid.7

At a mayoral election, only the first 30 subscribers can be considered.9

Signatures on nomination forms, once given, cannot be withdrawn by subscribers. If a subscriber contacts you to say that they wish to withdraw their subscription, you should inform that that this is not permitted by law and that the subscription remains valid.

You must reject a nomination if the nomination form is not subscribed as required.10

Checking subscribers are on the register

Subscribers must appear on the local government electoral register that is in force on the last day for publication of notice of election.11 It is essential that the correct version of the register is used for checking that the subscribers are valid.  

An elector may not subscribe more nomination forms than there are vacancies in the ward.12

However, a subscriber may subscribe an additional nomination form if the candidate whose nomination form they originally signed has died or withdrawn before the additional form is delivered.13

If subscribers sign more nominations than there are vacancies or more nomination forms for other elections in any other ward in the same principal area, their signature will only be valid on the first papers delivered to you (up to the permitted number).14

Where multiple nominations have been delivered by a candidate, if an elector subscribes any delivered nomination form, even if it is not the selected nomination form, it will count towards the maximum number that they may subscribe.

At parish council elections an elector may not subscribe more nominations than there are vacancies in the parish (if it is unwarded) or the ward (if the parish is warded).15 An elector may subscribe both a parish and a principal area nomination form.

There is no restriction on the number of nominations that an elector can subscribe: an elector can subscribe any number of nomination forms for any number of candidates. The first two subscribers on a nomination form must, however, be two different electors.16

Although the CARO/CCARO is responsible for the nomination process at the combined authority mayoral election, if you are the ERO for a local authority area that is part of the combined authority, you should liaise with the CARO/CCARO to agree a mechanism for the subscriber checks.

If the checks will be carried out centrally by the CARO/CCARO, you should ensure that they are supplied with the relevant electoral register promptly to enable them to conduct the required checks.

You should have a robust system in place to ensure that no elector subscribes more nominations forms than they are entitled to. You should use both a hard copy of the register and the electoral management system in order to minimise the risk of missing a subscriber who has subscribed more forms than they are allowed, and physically mark the hard copy of the register when nominations are formally submitted. 

As you must accept the nomination form at face value, you must accept that the signature made on the nomination form is that of the person listed on the register under the relevant elector number, even if the signature suggests another name. You may draw the attention of the person delivering the paper to the issue if you are concerned, but you must take the elector number and the signature at face value.17 If after having raised the issue you still have any concerns, you should raise these with your police Single Point of Contact (SPOC). 

Crossed out subscribers’ names 

Occasionally a mistake is made and one or more of the subscribers’ names may be crossed out. If the signature, printed name and elector number for a subscriber are clearly crossed out, you should ignore it and treat it as if that row did not appear at all. If asked, you should advise that any crossings out should be clear and, ideally, initialled.

You should not cross out any entry. Where an entry has been crossed out, the first two subscribers excluding that entry must still be valid for the nomination to be valid.

Last updated: 3 October 2024