Renewing existing postal vote applications

Customer notice

Please be aware that phishing emails may have been sent to electors asking for evidence to process the register to vote application.

See voting phishing emails for more information.

The way you apply for a postal vote has changed. Voters must now renew their postal votes every three years. 

If you applied for a postal vote before 31 October 2023, your postal vote will expire on 31 January 2026. 

We are contacting all affected postal voters now to ask them to re-apply for their postal vote as soon as possible.

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

Why we are getting in touch now

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 3 years

All postal voters, who applied before 31 October 2023, must re-apply for their postal vote by 31 January 2026 in order to remain a postal voter.

Over 31,000 voters needed to re-apply, so we started the renewal process early to allow voters time to re-apply and The Electoral Registration Team time to process the applications in advance of any scheduled elections.

If we do not hear from you by the end of October 2025 another reminder letter will be sent by post.

How we will contact you

We sent letters and emails to all affected postal voters in January 2025.

Over the coming weeks we will send reminder emails to those electors we hold an email address for who did not respond to the email sent in January.

So that you can spot a genuine email from us:

  • the email title will be 'Postal Vote Renewal Reminder'
  • the email will be from an email address ending southtyneside.gov.uk

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.

If you received a letter through the post in January, and have not yet returned the application form, please fill it in and send it back to us as soon as possible.

More information

Please contact the Elections Office 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

We have more information online about how to vote by post.

The next scheduled local government elections will be held on Thursday 7 May 2026.