Required format for signature and date of birth on a postal vote application
Although there is no prescribed form for applying for a postal vote, the regulations require that the applicant’s signature and date of birth are set out as follows:1
the signature shall appear against a background of white unlined paper of at least 5 cm long and 2 cm high, and
the applicant’s date of birth shall be configured numerically in the sequence of day, month and year, i.e. DD MM YYYY
The location of the signature and date of birth on a paper postal vote application is not prescribed. You cannot impose any other conditions on the way the information is presented. As long as the signature and date of birth meet the legislative requirements, the application must be accepted.
If you are producing paper postal vote application forms you should ensure that these meet accepted good practice in terms of accessibility and usability, and that you lay out the form clearly to help ensure that it is completed accurately. For example, you could position the date of birth box before the signature box, followed by the space for date of completion, to reduce the risk that applicants will give the date of completion first by mistake.
If the application is made online, the photograph of the applicant’s signature must meet the requirements set out above and be sufficiently clear and unambiguous.2