Part 7Special provisions relating to postal voting

Part 7—Special provisions relating to postal voting 18—Issue of postal voting papers (1) Subject to subclause (1a), the returning officer must, as soon as practicable after the twenty eighth day before polling day, and in any event not later than 21 days before polling day, issue to every natural person, body corporate or group who or which has their or its name on the voters roll used for the purposes of the election or poll postal voting papers consisting of— (a) a ballot paper (or, in an appropriate case, ballot papers) authenticated to the satisfaction of the returning officer; and (b) an opaque envelope bearing a declaration (in a form determined by the Electoral Commissioner), to be completed by the voter, declaring the voter's date of birth and— (i) that the ballot paper contained in the envelope contains their vote; and (ii) that they have not already voted at the election or poll; and (iia) if the voting papers are issued to a natural person—that the person is a State elector; and (iii) if the voting papers are issued to a body corporate or group— (A) the voter's full name; and (B) that the voter is the nominated person or default person for the body corporate or group. (1a) Postal voting papers must not be issued under this clause to a body corporate or group which has its name on the voters roll for the election or poll if there is no nominated person or default person for the body corporate or group. (2) The declaration under subclause (1) must appear on a tear‑off extension to the envelope flap. (3) An envelope used under subclause (1) must be— (a) a pre‑paid post envelope addressed to the returning officer; or (b) accompanied by a pre‑paid post envelope addressed to the returning officer, and must comply with any prescribed requirement. (4) Postal voting papers must also be issued to any person, body corporate or group of persons whose name does not appear on the voters roll but who claims to be entitled to vote at the election or poll and applies to the returning officer for voting papers not later than 5 pm on the seventh day before polling day. (5) Postal voting papers issued under subclause (4) must also include a declaration (in a form determined by the Electoral Commissioner) for the voter to set out the grounds on which an entitlement to vote is claimed. (6) Postal voting papers issued under this clause must be accompanied by an explanatory notice and a set of candidate profiles that comply with the regulations and may be accompanied by other material determined by the returning officer. (7) Subject to subclause (1a), postal voting papers may be issued under this clause— (a) by giving them to the prospective voter personally; or (b) by sending them by post— (i) to a prospective voter at the appropriate address on the voters roll; or (ii) in the case of a body corporate or group (without limiting any other method of delivery)—to the body corporate or group at an address nominated by the body corporate or group in a manner determined or approved by the returning officer; or (iii) in the case of a prospective voter whose name and address do not appear on the voters roll—at some other address of which the returning officer has received notice in a manner determined or approved by the returning officer. (8) The returning officer must keep a record of the electors and other persons to whom voting papers are issued under this clause. (9) If postal voting papers are returned because they have not been able to be successfully delivered, the returning officer must retain those voting papers in a secure place.1 (10) The returning officer is not obliged to check the date of birth of a voter, or any other information, provided under this clause (but may do so on a selective, random or other basis determined by the returning officer). (11) A vote may be admitted to the count notwithstanding that the voter's date of birth has not been declared (or accurately declared) under this clause, or that there has been some other formal defect or error on the part of the voter in complying with the requirements of this clause (unless the returning officer is of the opinion that the defect or error is sufficiently significant to warrant the rejection of the vote). (12) The returning officer is not required to issue postal voting papers under this clause with respect to a person who the returning officer has reason to believe has died. 1 Fresh voting papers may be subsequently issued under section 43 of the Local Government (Elections) Act 1999. 19—Arranging postal papers (2) For the purposes of the scrutiny of voting papers for each election or poll, the returning officer will, with the assistance of any other electoral officers who may be present, and in the presence of any scrutineers who may be present— (a) examine the declarations on all envelopes used for voting (and validly returned) and determine which votes are to be accepted for further scrutiny and which rejected from further scrutiny, rejecting unopened— (i) any envelope that forms part of a set of voting papers that have been cancelled under this Schedule; (ii) any two or more envelopes where it appears to the returning officer that the voter has acted in more than one capacity at the particular election or poll; (iii) any envelope where the voter's name does not appear on the voters roll, unless the voter is the nominated person or default person for a body corporate or group, or unless the voter's name has been omitted from the roll in error; (iv) any envelope where the voter does not appear to be a State elector; (v) any envelope where the signature does not, to the satisfaction of the returning officer, correspond with the signature on the application (if any) of the voter for the relevant voting papers; (b) tear off the extensions to the envelope flaps on the envelopes accepted under paragraph (a); (c) rearrange the envelopes that no longer bear their tear-off extensions so that the anonymity of voters is maintained; (d) remove the ballot papers from those envelopes; (e) if an envelope contains more than one ballot paper and a scrutineer challenges the number of ballot papers contained in the envelope—satisfy himself or herself that the envelope does not contain more ballot papers than the number to which the voter is entitled and, if the returning officer is not so satisfied, return all of those ballot papers to the envelope and reject them from the count; (f) examine the remaining ballot papers and reject any informal ballot papers; (g) arrange all unrejected ballot papers into appropriate parcels for counting.