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The way you apply for a postal vote has changed. Voters must now renew their postal votes every three years. 

If you applied for a postal vote before 31 October 2023, your postal vote will expire on 31 January 2026. 

We are contacting all affected postal voters now to ask them to re-apply for their postal vote as soon as possible.

The quickest and easiest way to renew is to .

Why we are getting in touch now

The Elections Act 2022 introduced changes to the way people apply for a postal vote for applications received from 31 October 2023:

• all postal vote applications must contain the applicant's name, address, date of birth, national insurance number and signature
• the applicant's identity must be verified against records held by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). If this identity check fails, the applicant must provide evidence of their identity
• postal votes are now valid for a maximum of 3 years

All postal voters, who applied before 31 October 2023, must re-apply for their postal vote by 31 January 2026 in order to remain a postal voter.

We currently have over 31,000 voters who need to re-apply, so we have started the renewal process early to allow voters time to re-apply and The Electoral Registration Team time to process the applications in advance of any scheduled elections.

Anyone who does not respond to this request will receive another invitation, closer to the postal vote expiry date of 31 January 2026. If they do not re-apply by the expiry date the postal vote will be cancelled.

How we will contact you

We will send a letter or email to all affected postal voters in January 2025.

So that you can spot a genuine email from us:

• the email title will be 'Register of Electors - Postal Vote Renewal Notice' 
• the sender will be stc.electoral.registration@notifications.service.gov.uk

Some members of the same household may be contacted in different ways depending on whether we have an email address or not.

We are using emails where a voter has provided an email address to reduce the cost of sending letters by post. Please help us by responding to our request for information as soon as possible.

More information

Please contact the Elections Office if:

• you no longer wish to vote by post (include your name, address and a request to remove your postal vote application)
• you received an email, but are unable to complete your application online and want to ask for a paper form

We have more information online about how to vote by post.

The next scheduled local government elections will be held on Thursday 7 May 2026.