Running electoral registration - England

Where postal vote applications require verification of personal identifiers, and an applicant has been asked to provide documentary evidence, you should request that the applicant provide copies of the evidence. 

Documentary evidence may be provided as part of an online application or delivered to your office by hand or by post or as an attachment to an email. If an applicant provides an original document, you must make a copy of that document and return the original document to the applicant.1  Any copies of documents provided by applicants or taken by you of original documents should be stored securely in the same way as application forms. Please see guidance on the retention of information submitted with applications for more information on this.

You should be satisfied that the documents or copies provided to you appear to be genuine. Where you have a doubt as to whether a copy is genuine or where the copy is of such poor quality that you cannot assess the document, you may ask the applicant to present the original document(s) in person at your office or to send original documents to you to be copied and returned. You should be aware that you would become responsible for the secure transit of the document in the latter case.

Where you have doubt as to whether an original document is genuine, you may ask the applicant to provide alternative documentary evidence in the first instance. Where alternative documentary evidence is not available, you should direct the applicant to the attestation process or reject the application.

Where documentary evidence does not appear to be genuine, you should advise the applicant of the penalties for supplying false information and inform your police Single Point of Contact (SPOC) where you suspect that false information may have been supplied.

For more information, see our ERO guidance on document authenticity checks.