If you would rather not vote in person at your designated polling station, you may prefer to vote by post or by proxy.
Applications can be made for a single election, for a specified period or permanently. They must be made by completing an application form (forms can be sent to you if requested, but requests cannot be emailed nor can a postal vote be set up from a telephone conversation).
You can apply for a postal vote up until 11 working days before an election. We do not recommend that you leave it that late though, as it will not give much time for you to receive your ballot pack and return it to us before the polls close.
To vote by post at the next scheduled elections, on Thursday 4 May 2023 your completed application form (with a wet-ink signature, not completed online with a stylus pen) must be received by the electoral registration officer at the Town Hall in Maidenhead by 5pm on Tuesday 18 April 2023.
A postal vote application form can be scanned and emailed to us at absent.vote@rbwm.gov.uk providing the application form is added as a pdf attachment and is not embedded within the email, however if the image is poor then we may reject it and ask you to put the application in the post to us instead.
A proxy vote can be applied for up until six days before an election, provided you do not already have any absent voting arrangements in place. The deadline for new proxy vote applications to be received by the electoral registration officer at the Town Hall is 5pm on Tuesday 25 April 2023. You do not need to wait for an election to be announced to apply for a postal or proxy vote.
You cannot sign an absent vote application form on behalf of an elector even if you have Power of Attorney. You cannot assign your voting rights.
A postal vote can be sent to your home address or any other address specified by you, a reason must be given.
Postal votes can be sent overseas, but you need to consider whether there will be time for you to receive and return your ballot paper by polling day. If you live overseas permanently you will need to register as an overseas elector.
Postal votes are usually dispatched between 14 and 5 days before polling day. If you are going to be out of the country during the run up to an election and would like a postal vote, please check with the elections helpline to discuss the practicalities of having a postal vote as it may not be possible to receive and return the paperwork in time for your vote to be counted.
If you have been sent a postal vote, you cannot vote in person at a polling station.
Postal votes can be posted back to the council offices or returned by hand to the council offices or polling station before the close of poll. If you have not received the postal vote or have mislaid it, please contact the elections helpline, bearing in mind that a new one cannot be issued after 5pm on polling day.
Postal votes have to be received at the council or polling station by the close of poll on polling day (10pm).
To download an application to vote by post form please visit the site https://www.gov.uk/voting-in-the-uk.