Our Electoral Registration Officer carries out a statutory annual canvass every year to review the Register of Electors. This ensures information held on the register is accurate and up to date.
All households in the Dover district will receive a form sent by the Electoral Registration Officer. Only one person is required to respond on behalf of the household.
The easiest way to respond is online using the button below. You will need part 1 and part 2 of the security code printed on your form.
How to respond
The type of form you receive will determine how you should respond. The three types are Canvass Communication A (CCA), Canvass Communication B (CCB) and Canvass Form (CF).
These will be sent to households where the current electoral information matches with the information held by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
If all the pre-printed information is correct, you do not need to respond to this letter.
If anything is incorrect or needs amending, please use the online response form above to update the details.
This letter will be sent to households where we have not had a response to a previously sent Canvass Form.
You need to check the pre-printed information and respond as soon as possible. If you do not respond to this letter, we will attempt to contact you by phone or email before sending a canvasser in person to your property to collect the information.
A Canvass Form will be posted to properties where the data-match has not been successful.
They will also be sent to properties where people live together but do not form a single household, for example care homes, some caravan parks where the caravans are not individually listed, houses of multiple occupation (HMO), hostels and student halls of residence.
These forms must be responded to.
If we do not receive a response, a Canvass Communication B will be posted to you as a reminder to respond.
If you need to respond to the form you have received, you can respond in one of four ways:
Online: via the button above using the security codes from your form
Text: if there are no changes to make, text NOCHANGE and your security codes to 07700 102282
Call: if there are no changes, call 07700 102282. You will need your security codes from your form.
Post: make any changes to the form, sign it and post it back to Dover District Council, White Cliffs Business Park, Whitfield, Dover, CT16 3PJ.
More on the annual canvass
If you do not respond to a Canvass Form (CF) or a Canvass Communication B (CCB), residents in the property will receive a telephone call or email to obtain the information.
If we do not hold these contact details for anyone in the property or can get no response, a canvasser will visit the property in person to obtain the information.
It a criminal offence to not respond to the information required on a canvass communication
If you have not received a letter/form or you have lost it, please contact us on 01304 872344 or by email to vote@dover.gov.uk (opens in new tab).
The law requires you to do so, even if you choose not to vote. It a criminal offence to not respond to the information required on a canvass communication.
If you do not register, it will not only affect your right to vote, it may also affect your ability to open a bank account, get credit, a mobile phone, a loan or a mortgage as the full register is checked by authorised credit agencies.
Do not wait to register until you need a mortgage or finance. Due to legal processes and timings, it can take several weeks before your entry is visible to credit agencies.
No – the CCA, CCB and CF are not registration forms.
Registration during the annual canvass is a two-step process. The first step is advising us of your name by responding to the canvass.
For the second step, you will need to go online and enter your details in order to register. It takes about 5 minutes, and you will need to give your National Insurance number and date of birth as part of the process. If you do not register online, we will post a registration form to you for completion.
Yes. Two groups of EU citizens have retained their voting and candidacy rights:
citizens of EU countries which have a reciprocal agreement with the UK Government, such as Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Denmark and Spain
EU citizens who were already legally resident in the UK before 31 December 2020.
Please note these changes will not affect the rights of citizens from Ireland, Malta or Cyprus.
Students are allowed to register both at their home address and at their university address, therefore you do not have to remove them from the register at home.
If you own a second property that you only use for holidays or leisure, you are unlikely to qualify to register there. Your registration should usually be based on where you spend most of your time and where your main day-to-day activities take place.
