DON’T LOSE THE CHANCE TO VOTE BY POST!

Absent Vote Signature Refresh – January 2012

Absent Voters (i.e. those who vote by post) are required to provide a signature and date of birth when they first apply.

When you are sent your postal vote for an election you are required to provide your signature and date of birth on a postal voting statement. These ‘personal identifiers’ are checked against those you provided on your original postal vote application form, to ensure that they match. This is to prevent someone else from using your vote. If they do not match, your vote cannot be counted. Your personal identifiers are always kept separate from your ballot paper, so no-one knows how you have voted.

An important part of these security measures is providing a fresh specimen signature every 5 years, since people’s signatures and circumstances can change over time. 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.

This Absent Vote signature refresh exercise will be undertaken every January for those absent voters whose applications are 5 years old and, therefore, due to expire.
If you are one of the absent voters who receives a signature refresh form, please make sure you sign and return it promptly as public authorities are obligated to send reminders to anyone who does not respond.

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 form and make sure the name and address of your helper is provided.

If you no longer want to vote by post you must respond by ticking the relevant box on the form and return it as soon as possible, in order to avoid any unncessary reminders.
If you do not return the signature refresh form by the deadline your existing absent vote facility will be cancelled and you will have to vote in person or make a new application.
Contact Details

Electoral Services
Westleigh House
Carnarvon Road
Clacton on Sea
Essex
CO15 6QF
Telephone: 01255 686586 or 01255 686587
Email: elections@tendringdc.gov.uk

FURTHER INFORMATION: Voting by Post or Proxy