Running electoral registration - Wales

The electoral register

As ERO you have a duty to maintain:1  

• a register of parliamentary electors
• a register of local government electors

These registers contain details of those who are registered to vote and must be combined as far as is practicable. Any reference to the register in our guidance should be taken as a reference to the combined registers unless otherwise stated.

The franchise for the Senedd and local government elections includes 16 and 17 year olds.2 This means that the local government register includes 16 and 17 year olds as full electors. Additionally 15 year olds and some 14 year olds are entitled to be included on the local government register as attainers. An attainer is someone who turns 16 by the end of the twelve months following the 1 December after the 'relevant date'.

The combined register will need to make clear the date on which those who are under 18 years of age will become 18 years old in order to clearly show their eligibility to vote in different elections.

No information on those aged under 16 must be included on any version of the register published or otherwise made available, except in very limited circumstances.3 For other information, see our guidance on access and supply of the register.

The franchise for Senedd and local government elections also includes qualifying foreign citizens.

The entry in the combined registers of any person who is registered only as a local government elector by virtue of being a qualifying foreign citizen must give an indication of that fact.

The edited register

You must also produce an edited (or open) version of the register of parliamentary electors.4  The term edited register is the technical term used in the legislation. The term open register is used when communicating with members of the public to make it easier to understand the purpose of this register and how it is used.

The edited register does not contain the details of any anonymous elector or any elector who is included on the full parliamentary register but has opted out of their details appearing on the edited register.

There is no requirement to publish an edited version of the local government register.5 As such anyone with only a local government franchise is not included in an edited register. This would include:

• any electors under 16 years old
• qualifying foreign citizens
• citizens of a member state of the EU (excluding eligible Irish citizens)
• peers who are members of the House of Lords
• electors registered under automatic voter registration with a J marker

Absent voting records

In addition to maintaining the register, you have a duty to process absent vote applications, maintain the absent voting record and produce the lists of absent voters for an election.5 More information can be found in our guidance on absent voting.