Around 7,000 postal voters in Tendring need to refresh their signature to make sure they can vote by post in future elections.

All those who applied to vote this way 5 years ago will soon be receiving a request from the District's Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) to provide a fresh signature.

It is an important security measure and legislation requires the first ever annual update to be carried out by January 31, 2012.

The exercise will then be undertaken every January for those absent voters whose original applications are 5 years old and due to expire.

To prevent anyone other than the voter from using the vote, personal identifiers - a signature and date of birth - are checked against those provided on the original postal vote application form to ensure that they match.

If they do not match, the ballot paper cannot be included in the count and the vote will be disallowed.
"If you are one of the absent voters who receives a signature refresh form please make sure you sign and return it as soon as you can," said Ian Davidson, Tendring's ERO.

"If you have a disability which means that you cannot provide a signature or sign in a consistent and distinctive way, indicate this on the form and ensure the name and address of the person who has helped you complete the form is provided."

Absent voters who receive a form but no longer wish to vote by post should tick the relevant box and return it as soon as possible, again to help avoid any unnecessary reminders being issued.

Those who do not return the signature refresh form by the deadline will have their existing absent vote facility cancelled and will either have to vote in person at their designated polling station, or make a new application.

Forms will be dropping through letter boxes over the coming days.

12/1/12