It’s fair to say there have been a few important changes to the elections process over the last few years, and it can sometimes feel difficult to keep up with them all.
The recent national requirement to bring voter ID with you when you vote at a polling station is probably the biggest change of all, but if you vote by post – and I know a lot of Reading residents do for ease and convenience – there’s another big change worth knowing about and that is that voters must now renew their postal votes every three years. For Reading, the change means that this year alone there are 18,000 residents who vote by post who will need to reapply, It’s a big number.
We are all creatures of habit, to a greater or lesser extent, so if you usually vote by post it’s easy to assume you will automatically receive a postal vote ahead of next year’s local elections as usual. However, unless you reply to the correspondence the Council has already sent you, or will be sending you over the coming weeks, that postal vote will not arrive next year.
The detail is that postal voters who made their current application before 31 October 2023, are now required to reapply for their postal vote by 31 January 2026. I’d imagine most residents don’t keep a record of when they made their postal vote application, so the simple thing is to make sure you reply to any contact from the Council. Our election team is starting the process now, to give residents plenty of time to re-apply for their postal vote before the next scheduled election on 7 May 2026.
The first batch of letters reminding people of the postal vote change have already been sent out, but where we hold a valid email address, we have been sending email reminders instead. Its important people respond as quickly as possible. While the final deadline to apply for a postal vote is 31 January 2026, a quick response means the election team can avoid the expense of sending out reminder letters.
The quickest and simplest way to renew or make a new application for a postal vote is online at www.gov.uk/apply-postal-vote. Alternatively, just complete and return the form included in the email or letter the Council has sent you.
And in case you have not been receiving enough letters about elections from the Council, this week also marks the start of the annual canvass. This is where we contact residents to ensure the details held on the electoral register remain up to date. The first stage will be a letter by post, or email if we hold one, sent to Reading households to confirm the information held is correct. If you receive an email, please respond to it even if all the information held is correct. This allows the election team to confirm you have received the email and cross you off their list. If you receive a letter through the post, you only need to respond if the electoral information in your household is incorrect.
The second stage, which begins at the end of July, will be a communication which will come through the post. This will be sent where we are unable to match the information we hold for you with Department of Work and Pensions. You must respond to this communication to confirm that the information we hold is correct, or inform us of any changes.
If you are in any doubt, either about either the changes to the postal vote application process or you registration status, remember you can always email the election team direct at elections@reading.gov.uk or by calling them on 0118 937 3717.
Cllr Liz Terry is the leader of Reading Borough Council
