Types of Absent Voting
This page contains information on absent voting. If you are unable to attend your polling station to vote, you can vote by post or appoint a proxy to vote on your behalf.
Postal voting
Anyone on the Register of Electors can now vote by post. You can have a postal vote instead of going to your polling station.
You can request an application form using the contact details on this page.
Proxy voting
Alternatively, if you cannot attend the polling station on the day of the election, you can appoint a person to vote for you. This person, called a proxy, can visit the polling station and cast your vote on your behalf.
You can request an application form using the contact details on this page.
Absent vote signature refresh process 2012
Absent Voters (i.e. those who vote by post, postal proxy or proxy) are required to provide a signature and date of birth when they first apply.
When you are sent your postal vote ballot pack for an election you are required to provide your signature and date of birth on a postal ballot voting statement. To help prevent someone else from using your vote, these 'personal identifiers' are matched against those you provided on your original postal vote application form. If they do not match, your vote cannot be counted. So that no-one knows how you voted, your personal identifiers are always kept separate from your ballot paper.
The Electoral Registration Officer is legally bound to request an up-to-date signature from you if it was over 5 years ago when you applied for a postal, proxy or postal proxy vote, and it was then when you last supplied a specimen of your signature. If this affects you, we will send you a signature refresh notice so you can provide us a fresh signature on around the 31 January in the relevant year.
People's signatures and circumstances can change over time and providing us with a fresh specimen of your signature every 5 years is a way of protecting your vote and protecting the integrity of the postal voting system
This absent vote signature refresh notice exercise will be undertaken annually for those whose signatures become over 5 years old on 31 January each relevant year.
The first annual signature refresh
The legislation requires the Electoral Registration Officer to carry out the first annual refresh of signatures by 31 January 2012 in order to ensure that the signatures for as many absent voters as possible are refreshed, producing as accurate a record as possible and potentially limiting the number of postal votes that are rejected due to mismatched identifiers.
Please look out for the signature refresh notice being sent to your address. If you receive a signature refresh notice, please make sure you sign and return it as soon as possible as we legally have to send a reminder notice 3 weeks later to everyone who does not respond and this costs us more money.
If you have a disability which means that you either cannot provide a signature or sign in a consistent and distinctive way, please indicate this on the notice and make sure you provide us with contact details in the space provided on the notice and we will make contact and advise you about how to proceed.
If you no longer want to vote by post you must respond by ticking the relevant box on the notice, sign the declaration and return it to us as soon as possible in order to avoid any unnecessary reminders.
If you do not return the signature refresh notice by the deadline, which is stated on the notice, your existing postal or proxy vote facility will be cancelled and you will have to vote in person at the polling station or make a new application.
Frequently Asked Questions (6)
Send the signature refresh notice back to us with a note explaining what you can tell us about that the person named on the notice. For example:- The person named on this notice moved out of this address on XXth Xember 20XX. Or, I have just moved into this address and the person named on this notice no longer lives here.
If you wish to apply for an absent vote, please contact the electoral services office by email or by telephone. Our contact details are shown in the left-hand side of the page.
When you contact us, state what type of absent vote is required. i.e. Postal, Proxy, Postal Proxy. Provide the name or names and the full address of those who wish to apply for an absent vote. In most cases, we will post the form to you within two working days of receiving your enquiry.
Yes, we will send a signature refresh notice to you. If we receive a completed signature refresh notice from you and it is satisfactory, you will have confirmed to us that you still wish to vote by proxy. However, should you fail to provide a new signature within the timescales stated by the notice, we will write to the person who you have appointed as your proxy to inform them that their proxy appointment has been cancelled.
We will also write to the person you have appointed as your proxy and ask them to provide us with a fresh signature. If they do not provide a fresh signature that can be scanned into our system by the deadline, they will lose their entitlement to vote on your behalf by post. If this is the case, we will write to you as the elector to explain that while your proxy appointment remains in place, your proxy must now attend your polling station to cast your vote on your behalf.
It depends on what date you put on your absent voter application form when you signed it. If you signed and dated your application form on 30 January 2007 or earlier, you will receive a signature refresh notice this year. If your form was dated between 31 January 2007 and 30 January 2008, you will be asked to refresh your signature this time next year.
You are not legally required to provide your date of birth. However, it would, be helpful if you did. If you do wish to provide your date of birth again, it will confirm that we hold the correct date on our records. If you provide us with a different date of birth from the one we already hold on our system, we will amend the date you gave us previously.
Tick the signature refresh notice to say that you no longer require a postal vote, sign the notice and return it to us in the pre-paid envelope. At the next election you will be issued with a poll card and will be required to vote at your local polling station.
Freedom of Information Requests (1)
Election Results
- Requested on
- Tuesday, 18 October 2011
- Reference
- 2011 September 21
- Resolution
- Information not held
Last updated: Monday, 6 February 2012 2:55 pm
