EA Bulletin 416 England

As part of the changes brought in with the Elections Act, electors must now reapply for their postal vote every three years. The first set of postal voters must re-apply by 31 January 2026, otherwise their postal vote will be cancelled.

Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) are required to notify domestic electors who have a postal vote in place before their existing arrangement ends, to inform them of the date on which it will end and how to make a fresh application. We have published guidance on the reapplication process to support you with this work and have recently updated this guidance following further discussions with MHCLG lawyers, to clarify that email can be used to contact electors where appropriate.  

As this is the first cohort of postal voters to go through the reapplication process, a large number of postal voters are affected and EROs are considering how this workload can be managed before the 31 January 2026 deadline. We are aware that some EROs have already started this process, and some are considering starting shortly.  

To support you in deciding how to manage this process locally, we have some points for you to consider, based on anecdotal feedback from those who have already started notifying impacted electors.  

Areas to consider when planning:

Timing  

• Do you have capacity in your team to manage this process before or during the annual canvass, or will you be waiting until the 6 week period before the 31 January 2026?
• Consider a phased approach to spread the workload and reduce pressure near the deadline.

Methods of contact

• How are you going to contact electors – will this be by post or by email?
• Where you contact by post, will you include a hard copy of the postal vote application form with the notice? Feedback to date is that many electors are contacting their ERO to request a paper form on receipt of the notice – including a form, and a pre-paid reply envelope where possible, could be more efficient for some groups of electors.
• Where you hold a valid email address for electors – you could consider a hybrid approach, using email for initial notices and reverting to post for any reminder notices sent out.
• Will you contact electors in bulk, or in phased batches? A phased approach will enable you to monitor different response rates for different communication methods and refine your approach accordingly, as well as helping manage the workload created by responses.
• You can also think about grouping batches by ward or polling district for more targeted communication.  

Stakeholder engagement

• Has the ERO provided information to political stakeholders on the postal vote reapplication process? This is important so that they understand that the number of registered postal voters may change in advance of future polls.  
• Given some anecdotal reports of poor response rates so far, how can you work with your communications team to maximise all opportunities to improve public awareness. 

Resources required

• Do you have capacity to process the expected volume of returned postal vote applications?
• If you contact electors in batches, consider the number of electors you will contact per phase.  
• Are there other electoral activities being carried out at the same time, which could limit the resources available to process applications?
• Where there are significant numbers of postal voters being asked to reapply, is it beneficial to start this process earlier, including sending hard copies of application forms, to reduce the number of forms to be processed in the run up to the May 26 polls?

Considerations for the annual canvass

Whilst the content of template canvass communications is prescribed and cannot be altered, this does not prevent you from including additional personal information in the variable data fields – for example, including the date of expiry if the elector has a postal vote arrangement.  

You are also able to include additional inserts into canvass communication mailings. You could decide to do so to include additional information about the reapplication process.

If you are considering using canvass communications to maximise your contact with electors on the reapplication process, you should consider:

• Any advice from your EMS on how to include additional variable data to the communications.
• How you will ensure any additional messaging on postal vote reapplication is clear and does not confuse electors.
• How you will ensure any additional inserts or messaging does not negatively impact the canvass response.

If you have any queries regarding the postal vote reapplication process, or want to discuss your approach to managing it, please do contact your local regional team. 

 

As laid out in Bulletin 415 England, we are requesting your feedback on the engagement resources we created to engage audiences in the May 2025 polls.  

Your responses will help us understand how useful the resources were to you and your partners and how to improve them in future. If you are aware of any partners who carried out work to engage voters in the 1 May elections, please forward this information to them. 

The survey can be completed here and closes Friday 30 May 2025. Thank you in advance for your time and input.