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When It Comes to Postal Votes; Post Box is Best

Postal votes will begin landing on the doorsteps of residents across the Borough over the coming days for the upcoming all-out local election and Police and Crime Commissioner election on the 2nd of May 2024.

Residents are advised to keep their eyes peeled for their postal votes and should aim to complete and return them as soon as possible by posting them in any Royal Mail Post Box.

For those who are not currently registered to vote or to receive a postal vote, there is still a small amount of time to do so. The deadline to register to vote is Tuesday 16th of April and can be done online here: https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote. The deadline to register to receive a postal vote is 5pm on Wednesday the 17th of April, with details of how to do this available here: https://www.gov.uk/how-to-vote/postal-voting.

Residents who may prefer to hand in their postal votes to the council’s customer services team or at a polling station, should be aware that there are new countrywide regulations coming into effect for this election. From now on, an individual will only be allowed to hand in a maximum of five postal votes in addition to their own and will need to complete and submit a form which includes declaring whether or not they are a political campaigner.

If an individual does fall under the definition of ‘political campaigner’, they are only allowed to hand in the postal votes for themselves, close relatives, and individuals they have direct care responsibilities for.

Electoral Services Manager, Darren Whitney, said: “We encourage everyone who receives a postal vote for this election to return it to a post box in good time. The form which residents are now required to complete if physically handing their postal vote in, requires making a declaration, so if you need to return your own, or anyone else’s postal vote to Customer Services or a polling station please be prepared for it to take longer than it has done in previous years. The quickest and easiest option is to return postal votes through the postal service.”

Residents should also be aware that from the April 8, Redditch Borough Council’s Customer Service team have been relocated to a new temporary location in the Kingfisher Shopping Centre. If you wish to return your postal vote to the Customer Service team, or have any other enquiry you need help with, you can now find the team at 5 George Walk in the Kingfisher Shopping Centre – the unit behind Primark.

If you have not applied to receive a postal vote and do not wish to register for one but you are registered to vote, you can attend a polling station on Polling Day, 2nd of May 2024. This will be an all-out election following the redrawing of the ward boundaries in Redditch by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England. This means that your polling station may have changed, so please double check your polling card when it arrives, to find your polling station information.

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