Introduction
Following the Elections Act 2022, a number of changes have been implemented for those residents who use postal votes at elections.
Residents could previously hold permanent postal votes which never expired and only required the signature held on record to be refreshed every five years.
Under the new legislation, residents applying for a postal vote must now provide their National Insurance number as an additional security measure and postal votes are now only valid for a maximum of three years.
The previous system of a signature refresh every five years has been replaced with the requirement to reapply for a postal vote every three years. Following the three year period, the postal vote application expires and a new application must be made to continue holding a postal vote.
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 2025 and 30 January 2026, your postal vote will expire on 31 January 2028.
All local authorities across the country must conduct their postal vote reapplication process, with the requirement for affected electors to reapply before 31 January 2026. 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 applied for prior to October 2023.
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 we are 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 the online postal vote application service.
Residents will be contacted by email throughout October and November 2025.
If we do not have your email address we will send a letter to you between October and December 2025.
You will only be contacted if your postal vote is due to expire on 31 January 2026. 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 letter, asking you to reapply for a postal vote. If you still want to continue voting by post after 31 January 2026, you will need to reapply.
You can reapply:
• online at www.gov.uk/apply-postal-vote (opens in new window)
• by downloading a paper form (GOV.UK website, opens in new window)
If you are affected by these changes and you live in an area where an election is due to be held, to ensure that you receive a postal ballot pack, you must make a valid application by 5pm, 11 working days prior to the election date.
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 2026, it will be cancelled. You will still be eligible to vote at your local polling station.
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 are some tips you can use to check the email is genuine:
• the email is from Somerset Council Electoral Services
• the subject of the email is ‘Action Required – Postal Vote Expiring’
• it includes the Somerset Council 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.