Postal vote expiry reapplication process

Under the Elections Act 2022, changes were implemented for postal voters.

Residents could previously hold permanent postal votes which never expired but required the signature to be refreshed every five years. Under the new legislation, residents applying for a postal vote must provide their national insurance number as an additional security measure and postal votes are valid for a maximum of three years. The postal vote application expires and a new application must be made to continue holding a postal vote.

The previous system of a signature refresh every five years but a permanent postal vote has been replaced with the requirement to reapply for a postal vote every three years. If requesting a postal vote for the maximum three year period, your postal vote will be valid up to the third 31 January from the date of your application. For example, if you apply for a postal vote between 31 January 2026 and 30 January 2027, your postal vote will expire on 31 January 2029.

All local authorities across the country must conduct their postal vote reapplication process, with the requirement for affected electors to reapply before 31 January 2027. If you are one of the affected electors and would like to continue voting by post after this date, you will need to reapply. If your postal vote expires, you must re-apply before being issued a postal ballot pack when there is an election.

Who is being contacted

We are contacting residents with postal votes who last applied for or completed a signature refresh prior to 31 January 2025. If you applied for a postal vote after this date, you do not need to reapply for your postal vote yet and will be contacted at a later date instead.

How are we contacting you

If you have provided us with an email address and consented to it being used for electoral registration purposes, we will contact you by email first. We will be using GOV Notify to securely reach out to residents and refer them to reapply online postal vote application service.

Residents will be contacted by email throughout September to October 2026. We will send a reminder letter November to December 2026.

If we do not have your email address we will send a letter to you between September and October 2026. We will send a reminder letter November to December 2026.

You will only be contacted if your postal vote is due to expire on 31 January 2027. This may differ for residents in the same household as it will be dependent on the individual’s most recent postal vote application date.

What you need to do

You will be contacted by email or by a letter, asking you to reapply for a postal vote. If you still want to continue voting by post after 31 January 2027, you will need to reapply.

You can reapply:

• online at www.gov.uk/apply-postal-vote
• by downloading a paper form (GOV.UK)
• by contacting us to request a paper form

If you no longer wish to vote by post, please contact us and we can cancel your postal vote and this will stop any reminder letters being sent to you.

If you do not reapply for your postal vote by 31 January 2027, your postal vote will be cancelled. You will still be eligible to vote at your local polling station, or you can apply for a postal vote up to the deadline for a specific election. To receive a postal ballot pack when there is an election, you must make a valid application by 5pm, 11 working days prior to the election date.

Is the email received genuine

We appreciate the need to check emails are genuine, especially if being asked to click on links and provide personal information.

Here’s some tips you can use to check the email is genuine:

• the email is from Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council Electoral Services
• the subject of the email is 'Action Required – Postal Vote Expiring'
• it includes the Basingstoke and Deane logo
• it has our contact details at the bottom of the email

You do not have to click on the link in the email. If you wish to reapply for your postal vote but you are still unsure about the email you can use any of the ways shown in the 'What you need to do' section above to reapply.

We will also be sending reminder letters to residents later on this year if we have not received a response from our email or our letter.