Running electoral registration - Wales

Contents of the discrepancy notices

We have produced a table that sets out the required information that must be included in the discrepancy notices.

Discrepancy type	Prescribed content of the notice
Postal vote address1	Inform the elector that: the postal vote address for the Senedd and Local government elections postal vote arrangement differs from the UK Parliament and Police and Crime Commissioner elections postal vote arrangement, and those addresses must be the same if a fresh application to vote by post is not made and determined by the relevant day their Senedd and Local government elections postal vote arrangement will cease to have effect on the relevant day.
Signature waiver2	Inform the elector that: a signature waiver is only in place for one of their absent vote arrangements and must be either in place for both or neither, and a fresh application to vote by post or proxy must be made and determined by the relevant day. if a fresh application is not made and determined by the relevant day their Senedd and Local government elections absent vote will cease to have effect on the relevant day.
Proxy name and/or address3	Inform the elector that: one or both of the proxy’s name or address in respect of their Senedd and Local government elections proxy appointment differs from the proxy’s name and/or address in respect of their UK Parliament and Police and Crime Commissioner elections proxy appointment, and the proxy details for all polls must be the same a fresh application to vote by proxy must be made and determined by the relevant day if a fresh application is not made and determined by the relevant day, their Senedd and Local government elections proxy vote arrangement will cease to have effect on the relevant day.
Senedd and Local government elections postal / UK Parliament and Police and Crime Commissioner elections proxy4 Or Senedd and Local government elections proxy / UK Parliament and Police and Crime Commissioner elections postal5	Inform the elector that they have a Senedd and Local government elections postal vote arrangement and a UK Parliament and Police and Crime Commissioner elections proxy vote arrangement. Or Inform the elector that they have a Senedd and Local government elections proxy vote arrangement and a UK Parliament and Police and Crime Commissioner elections postal vote arrangement. Inform the elector that their absent vote arrangements must be the same for all polls. Inform the elector that if a fresh application to vote by post or proxy to remove the discrepancy is not made and determined by the relevant day their Senedd and Local government elections postal vote arrangement will cease to have effect on the relevant day.

In addition to the prescribed content, you will need to provide clear information on:

details of the discrepancy
how to amend any absent voting arrangement in place
the qualifications required of a person being appointed as proxy (where appropriate), highlighting the differences between UK Parliament and Police and Crime Commissioner elections and Senedd and Local government elections requirements, explaining that a person appointed for both must be qualified for both. For more information see our guidance on the qualifications for acting as a proxy
which absent voting arrangements would remain in place if they don’t make a fresh application

You should include a paper postal vote application form, and a pre-addressed, pre-paid reply envelope in which the application form can be returned. You should also include your relevant email or telephone contact information.

You should consider how to manage circumstances where upon receipt of a discrepancy notice, an elector determines they wish to change the information in their UK Parliament and Police and Crime Commissioner elections arrangement or update both their Senedd and Local government elections and UK Parliament and Police and Crime Commissioner elections arrangements instead. This will require signposting to the options for completion of a new UK Parliament and Police and Crime Commissioner elections application as well as, or instead of, updating their Senedd and Local government elections arrangement.

We have produced template discrepancy notices which you can find in the absent voting section of the resources page.

Date of birth discrepancies

During your preparations for the convergence process you may identify records for an individual where a date of birth identifier discrepancy exists between records which could impact on your ability to merge the absent voting records.

Your duty to maintain registers that are accurate and complete means that you have the power to take steps to try and resolve these discrepancies. This could be through contacting the electors or inspecting any relevant local data.

There is no prescribed process for dealing with date of birth discrepancies, but you should ensure that you confirm the data held with enough time to be able to action any changes prior to the relevant day.

You are not required to write to the elector in these circumstances, if you have a phone number or email address, you could use this to ask for the information. You should ensure that, whatever method you chose, a clear audit trail is kept.

If you are not satisfied the correct information is held and are unable to confirm the correct date of birth, the absent voting arrangements should be cancelled. You should then notify the elector and send information on how to reapply.

There is a template letter available for managing date of birth discrepancies in our template discrepancy notices which you can find in the absent voting section of our resources page.

Last updated: 29 July 2026