A postal vote allows you to vote without going to a polling station. You can apply online or by post for a postal vote. Your ballot papers are then sent to you ahead of polling day. You complete the paperwork and return your ballot by post.
Once you have a postal vote, you will not be able to vote at a polling station.
Postal votes are usually sent out around 10 days before the election. If you need your ballot paper sent overseas, please allow enough time for it to arrive and be returned before polling day.
Apply for a postal vote
Apply for a postal vote as soon as you have decided you want to vote by post to make sure your ballot paper arrives in good time. The deadline to apply for a postal vote is 5pm, 11 working days before the election.
You can ask for a postal vote for one particular election only, for a particular period or have it set up for a maximum of 3 years.
You can submit the signed application by sending a scanned image attached to an email to vote@dover.gov.uk (opens in new tab) or you can return it by post to: Electoral Services, Council Offices, White Cliffs Business Park, Whitfield, Dover CT16 3PJ.
Once you have applied for your postal vote, at the next election you will receive a postal voting pack containing a ballot paper, a postal voting statement and a return envelope.
Complete the ballot paper and statement, then return them in the envelope provided.
More on postal voting
Postal votes can be despatched approximately 10 days before an election date, so you should bear this in mind if choosing to vote by post - especially if you ask for your ballot papers to be sent overseas.
It is your responsibility to post it back in time to reach us before the close of poll on election day. This is especially relevant for ballot papers being sent overseas. If in doubt, you can take your completed postal vote on election day (before the close of poll) to your assigned polling station and hand it to the presiding officer. You will not be able to vote at the polling station if you have a postal vote.
If you hand deliver postal votes you will need to complete a form at the delivery point and the form must be countersigned by an authorised officer.
You are only allowed to hand deliver a total of five postal votes in addition to your own.
Candidates and campaigners may only return postal votes for people they live with or care for. They must not return postal votes for anyone else.
If you have not received your ballot paper by the fourth working day before election day, you can ask us to give you a replacement ballot paper. We can only do this up to 5pm on the day of the election.
We will ask you for proof of identity. The short timescale and the need for proof of identity will mean you have to come to the council offices to collect a replacement ballot paper.
If you fill in your ballot paper incorrectly and you want us to replace it, you must bring it to the council offices together with all the other documents we sent with it, and ask us to give you a new ballot paper.
You must do this before 5pm on the day of the election at the latest. You will have to collect the new papers from the council offices in Whitfield if there is not enough time to post them to you.
You can cancel a postal vote but you must tell us in writing (by email or post). We need to receive this no later than 5pm, 11 working days before an election or you will still get your postal vote and not be able to vote at a polling station at that election.
