The Electoral Register
What is the Register of
Electors
Who should register?
Why should I register?
Applying from
December through to August
I'm paying
Council Tax - I should be on the register!
A bank
or credit agency has told me I'm not on the register!
Has your name changed?
Has somone moved out
of your property?
Students
European Union Citizens
Service Voters and Crown
Servants
Moving to live overseas
Mental
Health Patients, Homeless and Prisoners on Remand
Registering Anonymously
What is the Register of
Electors
The Register of Electors is a list of all the residents of our
Borough who are eligible to vote in elections. It is compiled each
year, following a canvass by post and personal visit of every
household in the Borough during September, October and November,
and the new register is published on 1st December each year.
The register is not a static document, however. At the beginning of
nine months, from January to September, we update the register by
adding the names of new applicants, by removing the names of
electors who have died or moved away, and by altering names, for
example, where electors have married.
The Full Register of Electors is a public document, but you can
only inspect it as a paper copy under supervision at the Council's
Civic Offices, where you will only be able to make hand-written
notes of its contents which, by law, you will not be allowed to use
for any direct marketing purposes.
By law, there are strict restrictions on who we can supply the Full
Register to, and, in turn, there are strict restrictions on the
uses that they can make of it. The Full Register is supplied to the
political parties, to elected representatives and election
candidates, to law enforcement agencies and to credit reference
agencies.
A second version of the register, the Edited Register of Electors
is also produced. It omits the names of those electors who have
asked us to leave them out. About 34% of our electors ask us to
take their names off this version of the register. The Edited
Register is available for inspection at all the Borough's public
libraries. We can also sell this version to anybody.
Archive copies of the register, more than 15 years old, are not
kept by this office. You will need to contact the Shropshire
Archives, Castle Gates, Shrewsbury, Shropshire SY1 2AQ; Telephone
01743 255350, Email
archives@shropshire-cc.gov.uk
for archive copies of the register.
Who should
register?
To be on our register, you will need to meet one of the following
qualifications:
- Resident in Telford and Wrekin on the relevant date - that is
either on 15th October for the new register published on 1st
December, or, if you move into our area and want to be added after
1st December, on the date you sign your application form;
- A British, Commonwealth or Irish Citizen or a citizen of a
European Union Member State resident in Telford and Wrekin;
- 16 or 17 years of age or over - you will be able to vote as
soon as you are 18.
There are certain exceptions to the residency requirement, to
help service personnel, British citizens living overseas and the
homeless, and those are dealt with below.
Why
Should I register?
- Every household is required by law to complete and return the
annual registration form which is delivered to every home between
August and October; failure to do so can carry a maximum fine of
£1,000;
- If you are not on the register you will not be able to
vote;
- Credit reference agencies are allowed to buy a copy of the full
register to use for credit checking. If you are not on the register
you are likely to have difficulties obtaining credit and opening a
customer account;
- The register is used by the government to assess how much money
is given to the Council in the Revenue Support Grant - and, of
course, that affects the services that we are able to provide for
you.
Applying from
December through to August
You can download the application form you need from
this website. Otherwise, you can contact Electoral Services on
01952 383201 requesting the form. Complete and return the form;
every applicant in your household will need to sign the form.
If your form is completed correctly and no one objects to your name
appearing on the register, you will be added to the register at the
next monthly update and you will be sent a confirmation of your
registration.
There are mid-month deadlines laid down by law for the receipt of
such an application and these are listed here. For most applicants,
these mean that you will be added to the register within six weeks
of our receiving your form.
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If we get
the form before… |
The details
will be changed on… |
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Friday 8th
February 2008 |
Monday 3rd
March 2008 |
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Monday 10th
March 2008 |
Tuesday 1st
April 2008 |
|
Wednesday 9th
April 2008 |
Thursday 1st
May 2008 |
|
Friday 9th May
2008 |
Monday 2nd
June 2008 |
|
Monday 9th
June 2008 |
Tuesday 1st
July 2008 |
|
Thursday 10th
July 2008 |
Friday 1st
August 2008 |
|
Friday 8th
August 2008 |
Monday 1st
September 2008 |
If you have moved to Telford and Wrekin, we will also tell the
Elections Office of your old council area that you have moved so
that your name can be taken off their register.
During an election period, there are special rules about adding
names to the register. At such time, we need to receive an
application on or before eleven working days before polling
day.
I'm paying
Council Tax - I should be on the
register!
It doesn't follow that because you are paying council tax you are
also on the register of electors. The two systems are kept separate
by law, not least to protect the integrity of the register of
electors. Even so, our council tax section sends out home-mover
packs whenever someone calls them to set up a new account for their
new home, and that pack includes a voter registration form.
A
bank or credit agency has told me I'm not on the
register
We have already mentioned that credit reference agencies are
allowed to buy a copy of the full register to use for credit
checking. They also buy copies of the monthly updates. If a bank or
credit agency has told you that you are not on the register, you
should contact us. Firstly, we will check the register ourselves,
and, if need be, we will send you a voter registration form.
Has your name
changed?
You may have changed the name you are known by, by marriage, by
deed poll or by reversion to a former name. We can alter the
register if you contact us with the information by letter, email or
fax. We will write to you when the change has been made.
Has someone moved
out of your property?
Someone may have left your address, or a member of your household
may have died. Again, we will amend the register if you contact us
with the information by letter, email or fax. We receive a weekly
report from the Registrar of Births and Deaths of all the deaths
that take place within the borough, and we alter the register on
the basis of that information.
Students
Students can register at both their term time address and at their
home address. They should bear in mind that it is an offence to
vote twice in the same elections.
We recommend students to remain registered at their home address
while they are in college; of course, students tend to move often,
and re-registering is probably not at the top of their list of
priorities!
European Union
Citizens
If you are a citizen of another European Union state, then you are
entitled to register in the United Kingdom. If you are registered,
you will be allowed to vote in all local elections, and, subject to
our receiving a further application from you, you will also be
entitled to vote in elections for the European Parliament. We write
to all European Union citizens who are registered with us in
advance of the elections for the European Parliament, so that you
can register to vote in those elections as well.
The same reciprocal arrangements are in place for British citizens
who are living in another European Union state.
Service Voters and Crown
Servants
If you are a member of the armed forces or the spouse of a service
person you can register:
- Either as an ordinary elector at your home address, using the
monthly application form or the annual canvass form;
- Or, if you do not want to disclose your address on the
register, by completing an annual service declaration
form.
Either way, this will give you a registration for up to one
year. We have a duty to remind people who use an annual service
declaration form to re-register before their one year's
registration comes to an end.
If you are a Crown Servant and or an employee of the British
Council you can apply to be registered in much the same way. Your
department should make forms available to you, and the department
should arrange for their transmission to us.
Moving to live
overseas
If you move to live abroad, you can keep your right
to vote at UK Parliamentary elections and European Parliamentary
elections for fifteen years, subject to your submitting an annual
overseas elector application. You will be entitled to register at
your last UK registration address, or, if you were too young to
register when you moved, at the last UK registration address of
your parents or guardians. The application form allows you to apply
to vote by post or by proxy.
Mental
Health Patients, Homeless and Prisoners on
Remand
There is a category of electors who are absent from
their normal residence indefinitely and for a long term, and there
are those who do not have a home. Even so, the law acknowledged
their right to be registered by allowing a "notional residence"; a
place where they might normally be resident or with which they have
a close association.
We can supply application forms to those mental health patients,
homeless or prisoners on remand who have a "notional residence" in
Telford and Wrekin. If the applications are accepted, they will
provide registration for 12 months.
Registering
Anonymously
In some very exceptional circumstances, some people may be able to
register anonymously because their personal circumstances or their
work would place them at risk if their names were to appear on the
Register of Electors, which is a public document.
The law only forsees this happening very exceptionally. Your
application will have to be accompanied by an attestation signed by
the Chief Constable of the Police or by a Director of Social
Services, or it will need to be accompanied by a specific court
order.
Electoral Services can be contacted as detailed below:
Email:
elections@telford.gov.uk
Tel: 01952 383201
Fax: 01952 383253
Electoral Services Office
PO Box 216
Civic Offices
Telford
TF3
4LD |