How postal voting works
Postal votes are sent to all registered postal voters in the two weeks before polling day. We can’t send postal votes out earlier than this, so we advise all postal voters to take into consideration their availability to vote before planning any holidays.
Your postal vote will contain your ballot paper(s) and a ‘Postal Voter’s Statement’, on which you’ll need to provide your date of birth and signature. These details are checked against those provided on your application form, so your postal vote will not be counted if they’re missing or don’t match.
Your postal vote must be completed and returned to us, in the first class envelope provided, before 10pm on polling day. Any postal votes received after this time can’t be accepted.
Postal votes can be returned in the post, handed in person at the elections office, or handed in at a polling station (providing it is a polling station within your own electoral area, usually within your ward).
Once your postal vote has been received it will be processed and the personal identifiers checked, before the ballot paper is secured and taken to be included in the count. Your ‘Postal Voter’s Statement’ and ballot paper are handled separately to make your vote anonymous.
Although the postal votes are opened and checked, the ballot papers are handled face down until the start of count following the close of poll, so that it’s not possible to see how the votes have been cast.
