Regulation 2 Requiring personal identifiers from existing absent voters

A registration officer must by 31 January 2007 send a notice in writing to every person who, on 1 January 2007 is an absent voter entitled to vote by post, by proxy or by post as a proxy (as the case may be) at an election for which the day of the poll will be on or after 3 May 2007.

The notice must require the absent voter to provide to the registration officer, within six weeks from the date of sending the notice, a specimen of his signature and his date of birth (“the required personal identifiers”) in accordance with these Regulations.

The notice must be sent by the registration officer to the current or last known address of the absent voter.

The registration officer must, if the absent voter has not responded to the notice within three weeks from the date on which the notice was sent, as soon as practicable send a copy of the notice to him.

Where a notice or copy of a notice is sent by post, the registration officer may use—

and postage shall be prepaid on any such notice sent by post.

A notice or copy of a notice sent to an absent voter in accordance with this regulation must be accompanied by a pre-addressed reply envelope and, in the case of any notice sent to an address within the United Kingdom, return postage shall be prepaid.