Electoral Registration

PLEASE NOTE: There are no elections in the Royal Borough in May 2013

If you want to go onto the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead's electoral register during the year from 1st November 2012 to 31st August 2013 you can either download a rolling registration form (pdf 95kb) or contact the Elections Office on 01628 796306 for a form to be posted to you.

The Current Register of Electors

A revised electoral register will be published on 16th October 2012 and this will remain in force until further notice.

Two Versions of the Register

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is obliged to publish two versions of the Electoral Register each year usually on 1st December.

The full register lists everyone who is entitled to vote. Only certain people and organisations are allowed copies of the full register and they are only able to use it for specified purposes. These include:

• electoral purposes;
• crime prevention and detection; National Fraud Initiative
• to enable credit reference agencies to fulfil their obligations under Money Laundering Regulations and to allow for the vetting of applicants for credit or applications which could result in granting credit.

The law specifies who may have a copy of the full register and for what purpose it can be used. It is a criminal offence for it to be passed on to anyone else or be used for any unauthorised purpose. The penalty is a fine of up to level 5 (currently £5000).

The edited register leaves out the names and addresses of people who have asked for them to be excluded from that version of the register. The edited register is available for general sale and can be used for any purpose. It can be bought by any person, company or organisation and can be used for commercial activities such as marketing. Under election law, this choice must be offered to you each year and the opt-out only applies for the next 12 months.

However, under section 11 of the Data Protection Act 1998, you can give the Electoral Registration Officer notice that you do not want your personal information to be used for direct marketing either permanently or until further notice. To do this you should complete the Electors Section 11 opt out form (pdf 56kb) if you are already on the register of electors or tick the relevant box on the front of the rolling registration form (pdf 95kb) if you are applying to be added to the register of electors. This request will come into effect from the next revision of the Edited Register following receipt of the request.

Registering to vote if you are a member of a European Union country other than the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Malta or Cyprus? Further information on this can be found on the Aboutmyvote website.

How to Apply to go onto the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead's Electoral Register

During the annual canvass period from August to November each year please check the Annual Canvass Form when you receive it and respond electronically (preferred method) or by post. An information leaflet will be enclosed with your Canvass Form explaining how to respond electronically. You can respond electronically if there are no changes to be made to the details on the canvass form or if you only want to change your Edited Register information or request a postal vote application form. To respond via the internet please visit the Elector Registration website.

At other times of the year you can download an elector registration form (pdf 59kb), fill it in and return it by post to the elections office at the address on the form. If you need further information, please telephone 01628 796400 or 01628 796306 or email electoral.registration@rbwm.gov.uk.

Students

How to Register - Students may be able to register at home and their term-time address. So wherever you are on election day you can have your say. All you need to do is fill in the online registration form, print it off and return it to the Electoral Registration Officer at your term-time local council.

Voting at Elections - You can vote in the local government elections at both your home and your term-time address as long as they are not in the same local government area. However you can't vote twice in UK Parliamentary, Scottish Parliamentary, National Assembly for Wales or European Parliamentary Elections.

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