Postal and Proxy Voting

Parliamentary Election - Thursday 4 July 2024

We know postal voters are keen to know when their UK Parliamentary general election postal vote pack will arrive. This will depend on:

when your application was processed
how long post takes to be delivered to you – particularly if you are an overseas voter.

Existing postal voters plus applications receive and approved by 12pm on Wednesday 5 June:

If you are an overseas elector, your postal vote pack was sent out on Tuesday 11 June.
If you live in the UK, your postal vote pack will be sent on Tuesday 18 June.

Applications received and approved after 12pm on Wednesday 5 June and by the deadline of 5pm on Wednesday 19 June:

If you are an overseas elector, postal vote packs will be sent out daily from Wednesday 19 June as applications are approved.
If you live in the UK, your postal vote pack will be sent on Tuesday 25 June.

Why aren’t postal votes sent out as soon as an application comes in?

Candidate nominations closed at 4pm on Friday 7 June, so ballot papers could only be finalised and sent to print after this time.

Due to the short notice for the 4 July UK Parliamentary General Election, specialist election printers and Royal Mail are working at capacity to print and deliver over 8 million postal votes across the UK.

It’s a complicated process, with personalised postal vote statements matched with the correct ballot paper. There is also a need to produce personalised envelopes and instruction sheets. We also need to carry out crucial security checks which add to the time needed to prepare and send votes out.

Postal votes for overseas electors have early priority because of the extra time it takes for international mail to be delivered and returned.

What if I’m going on holiday before my vote is likely to arrive?

If you applied for a postal vote and don’t think you’ll be home to return it by post on Thursday 4 July, you can drop your completed postal vote pack in to your polling station between 7am and 10pm on Thursday 4 July. You must complete a form when you hand it in.

If you won’t be back in time to use your postal vote, you can instead appoint someone you trust as a proxy to vote on your behalf. You will need to

cancel your postal vote by 5pm on Wednesday 19 June. This will happen automatically when you appoint a proxy, but you can contact us to talk about other options to cancel.
make a proxy application by 5pm on Wednesday 26 June
the person you appoint as a proxy must:
- be a registered parliamentary elector who can vote in this election.
- only be a proxy for up to two electors living in the UK, plus up to two people living abroad, or up to four people living abroad.
Your proxy can:
- vote in person on your behalf at your polling station. They will have to show their own accepted form of photo ID to be able to vote or
- vote by post for you but your proxy must apply for a proxy postal vote by 5pm on Wednesday 19 June.

Postal voting

You can now apply online to vote by post

You can apply to vote by post for one of the following:

a single election on a specific date
a specific period
a maximum period of up to three years

In order to apply to vote by post, you can now apply for a postal vote online. If you are not able to complete the online application, you can download a postal vote application form from the Government website. You will need your National Insurance number to hand when applying to vote by post.

If you have completed a paper application form, you can either:

Send us a good quality scanned attachment with a clear signature to elections@rushcliffe.gov.uk. Digital signatures will be rejected.
Post it to: Electoral Services, Rushcliffe Borough Council, Rushcliffe Arena, Rugby Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham NG2 7YG.

A postal vote can be sent to your home address or any other address you specify. But remember that if you want a postal vote sending overseas then you need to consider whether there would be time to receive the ballot paper and return it before the close of poll.

Postal votes are usually sent out about a week before the day of the election.

The deadline for making an application for a postal vote for an election is 5pm, 11 working days before polling day.

Postal votes must be received by the Returning Officer by the close of poll on election day.

Watch a video on how to complete your postal vote.

Proxy voting

You can now apply online to vote by proxy

If you're unable to vote in person you can ask someone to vote on your behalf. This is called a proxy vote.

In order to apply to vote by proxy, you can now apply for a proxy vote online in some circumstances. If you are not able to complete the online application, you can download a proxy vote application form from the Government website. You will need your National Insurance number to hand when applying to vote by proxy.

If you have completed a paper application form, you can either:

Send us a good quality scanned attachment with a clear signature to elections@rushcliffe.gov.uk. Digital signatures will be rejected.
Post it to: Electoral Services, Rushcliffe Borough Council, Rushcliffe Arena, Rugby Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham NG2 7YG.

An appointed proxy must be at least 18 years of age and currently registered to vote at an address in the UK. A person can only act as a proxy to no more than four electors, with no more than two of whom are resident in the UK.

The deadline for making an application for a proxy vote for an election is 5pm, six working days before polling day. However, if you are already registered to vote by post, the deadline to change from a postal vote to a proxy vote is 5pm, 11 working days before polling day.

Your appointed proxy must vote in person on your behalf at your designated polling station in Rushcliffe. If your proxy is unable to attend your polling station, they should contact us for an application form to vote by post on your behalf.

Do it online

Documents to download

Useful links

Elections