By Richard Cole, ALDC’s Head of Development
If not, it should be.
Hopefully, you now have the marked registers if you had elections in May. If you haven’t yet, please do get them. Compare your list of supporters on Connect with your recent marked registers. Those who didn’t vote, or who miss some elections, are your ‘Goldilocks’ list: just the right group of people to target for postal votes.
Getting those inconsistent voters onto postal votes will increase their turnout.
Earlier this year, the postal vote requirements of the Elections Act 2022 came into force, with the first tranche of postal voters in England (and General Election postal voters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) losing their postal vote if they did not renew. There has been a significant reduction in the number of people registered for postal votes. However, this has led to a rise in postal voter turnout, reaching as high as 80-95%.
The full picture will not emerge until the autumn, when the Electoral Commission releases data on postal votes, but we have collated postal vote data whenever it has been released by councils.
Polling analyst John Swarbrick says:
“The London Borough of Sutton has released its detailed ward-by-ward data for May 2026. There are a number of key points that come out of the data.
First, the take up of postal votes is down by a quarter. Against that, postal vote turnout is up considerably, above General Election levels. Across Sutton, it was 81%.
Secondly, we saw on-the-day turnout increase as well, by more than 10%, although not by as much as we saw among postal voters.”
How can we get more people onto postal votes?
As so often, the simple answer is: ‘Ask them!’
We can do that through normal canvassing, making sure we have a form available to all canvassers. However, targeted canvassing is likely to be the most effective approach, especially if it is part of a coordinated programme, with people being contacted in several ways in quick succession:
- Email those whose email addresses we have. Voters can now register for a postal vote online, so include this link in the email: https://www.gov.uk/apply-postal-vote. (In Scotland, this still requires a paper form.)
- Send them direct mail with a form. (Postal vote recruitment templates are here, and direct mail bulk-buy deals are here.)
- Knock on their doors (using your ‘Goldilocks’ list).
How can we get more people onto postal votes?
Councils will often supply an updated list of postal voters every month or so. The key updates come at the beginning of the year and during an election, as there is often a surge in postal vote registrations when an election is underway.
It is important that your Connect Manager keeps the list of postal voters up to date.
Target postal voters with additional literature throughout the year, with direct mail being especially important in the January to May period. Remember, they are the one group with a very high likelihood of voting.
Check when postal votes are being sent out and organise a specific operation, with direct mail and/or blue letters landing just before the postal votes arrive. Also organise phone calls to postal voters as their ballot packs land.