Have you checked your electoral registration details lately? If not, you might miss out on your chance to vote on important decisions that affect our community.
The annual canvass of electors is starting this week. From Tuesday 21 July, we will be distributing over 45,000 emails to roughly 31,000 properties that we hold details for. If you receive an email, you should respond to this. The emails are then followed up with letters in the coming months to those who haven’t responded and those that we don’t have an email contact for. It is a legal requirement that a response is received from every household.
The canvass is a way of keeping the electoral register up to date. We want to make sure everyone who’s eligible to vote is on the list.
Sharon Wroot, our Electoral Registration Officer, says, “if you are contacted as part of the annual canvass it’s a legal requirement that a response is received, so please keep an eye out for your communication. It is extremely important that we receive at least one response from each household. By responding you will be helping to ensure the electoral register is up to date. To make sure you don’t lose your say at upcoming elections, simply follow the instructions sent to you.”
If you’re not currently on the electoral roll, registering is super easy! Just head over to www.gov.uk/register-to-vote and get it done online.
Have you recently moved house?
For those of you who have recently moved, it’s especially important to check your details. Did you know you need to update the electoral roll when you move house? You can find all the links to things you need to do when you move house on www.nelincs.gov.uk/homes-and-property/moving-home.
What to do when you are contacted
When you receive your email or letter, check the details carefully and follow any instructions – you can complete the form online in just a few minutes. By law, each household is required to respond to make sure everything is correct.
If there are changes, like adding or deleting someone from the form, there may be follow-up communications. You can opt out of being on the public version of the electoral roll, just like being ex-directory on the phone, but the Council will still hold the details for electoral registration purposes.
For more information on registering to vote, visit the Electoral Commission website. Let’s make sure everyone’s voice is heard!
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