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

In England, any domestic elector with a postal vote granted on or before 30 January 2025 must reapply by 31 January 2027.

Anyone who does not respond to this request will receive another invitation, closer to the postal vote expiry date of 31 January 2027. If they do not re-apply by the expiry date the postal vote will be cancelled.

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. The email will be sent by eregcanvass@winchester.gov.uk

Residents will be contacted by email throughout 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 in 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.

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 Winchester City Council Electoral Services
• the subject of the email is 'Action Required – Postal Vote Expiring'
• 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.

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

Email: eregcanvass@winchester.gov.uk 

Phone: 01962 848125

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