Renewing existing postal vote applications

Overview

The way you apply for a postal vote has changed. Voters must now renew their postal votes before they are due to expire. 

All postal voters, who had a postal vote granted on or before 30 January 2025, must re-apply for their postal vote by 31 January 2027 in order to remain a postal voter.

If we do not receive a response before the deadline your postal vote will expire and you will revert to an in person voter. 

We will be contacting all affected postal voters to ask them to re-apply for their postal vote.

The quickest and easiest way to renew is to reapply for a postal vote online.

Why are we getting in touch

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 up to 3 years

How will we contact you

We will start by contacting affected electors who we hold an email address for first. 

So that you can spot a genuine email from us:

• the email title will be 'Postal Vote Re Application'
• If you live in Eastbourne the email will be from [email protected]
• If you live in the Lewes District the email will be from [email protected] 

We are using emails where a voter has provided an email address to reduce the cost of sending letters by post. Please help us by responding to our request for information as soon as possible.

After we have finished contacting all the electors who we hold an email address for, we will send out letters to all affected postal voters that we do not have an email address for.

Postal vote re-application and expiry correspondence

If you applied for a postal vote before 30^th January 2025, by law you were required to reapply by 31^st January 2027.

If you did not reapply, or your re-application was unsuccessful, we will have informed you that your postal vote has expired.

You can still:

• Vote in person at your polling station at an election, or
• Reapply for a postal vote at: www.gov.uk/apply-postal-vote

If you prefer to apply using a paper application form you can download one or we can post one out to you.

If you require a paper form, please send a request to:

• Eastbourne - [email protected]
• Lewes - [email protected]

More information

Please get in contact 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. (include your name, address and a request to have a paper application sent).

Electoral Services contact details and postal address