Annual canvass

Register of Electors 2025

The annual canvass ensures that the Electoral Registration Officer at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead can keep the electoral register up to date, identifying any eligible residents who are not registered to vote and encouraging them to do so.

The annual canvass for 2024 commenced on Friday 1 November 2024.  New legislation brought in during 2020 allows us to data match our current register against other government databases and where we believe they are no changes to the property and we have an email address for the residents we will communicate in the first instance by email.

If we do not get a response from this we will then send out a form detailing the current information we hold.  The annual canvass period will go right up until Wednesday 22 January 2025 and we will publish the new register on Saturday 1 February 2025, however we encourage households to respond as soon as they receive a request from us as it will save the council money as we will not have to send out reminders or people to knock on door to check the information.

eCanvass

We will contact some residents, who are already registered to vote, by email from Thursday 7 November and will ask them to confirm the electoral registration details for their household.

Emails will be sent from the Gov.uk/Notify service and will come from:  Electoral Registration - RB Windsor and Maidenhead <electoral.registration.rb.windsor.and.maidenhead@notifications.service.gov.uk>, which is hosted by central government and sent on behalf of Electoral Services at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.

Electors who receive an email are asked to confirm their household registration details by logging on to our secure website at https://www.registersecurely.com/rbwm  If a household response is not made before midnight on Monday 25 November 2024, a paper form will then be sent in the post. These were sent out around Monday 2 December 2024.

Postal correspondence

Some households, whom we have not been able to email, will receive a paper form from us after 7 November 2024 and through to early January 2025 and we ask the residents to confirm the details for their household either by freephone or on our electronic response facility which is at https://www.registersecurely.com/rbwm. 

Not all of our postal communications will include a business reply envelope but details of how and where to respond will be detailed on each form or email communication.

We would encourage you to respond via telephone or the internet if you are able to as this will save the council time and money.

Please look out for our canvass correspondence and respond as soon as possible so we do not have to send you a reminder.  If we have to send you a reminder that will be done in December and January.

Electoral Services’ post, must be returned to the Town Hall, St Ives Road, Maidenhead SL6 1RF. 

For more information about we how process your personal data, please refer to our privacy notice Privacy notices: Law, Governance and insurance | Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.

Telephone and door to door canvass

From December 2024 Electoral Services will make telephone calls and from early January 2025, Electoral Services will also make personal visits to households who have yet to respond to their household registration form. 

We will ask you to confirm your household's registration details on the door step or over the phone, to save you time rather than posting the form back to us or making the changes using our automated telephone response service or internet channels.

Registration eligibility

You can register to vote if you are resident (usually live) in England and aged 16 or over (but you will not be able to vote until you are 18).

You must also be one of the following:

• British citizen
• Irish citizen
• Commonwealth citizen (including Maltese and Cypriot) who has permission to enter or stay 
  in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man, or who does not need permission
• European Union (EU) citizen of Denmark, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, or Spain who has permission to enter or stay in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man, or who does not need permission (you can vote in local council and Police and Crime Commissioner elections, and 
  Mayor of London and London Assembly elections only)
• European Union (EU) citizen of any other EU country who on or before 31 December 2020 had permission to enter or stay in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man, or who did not need permission, and this has continued without a break (you can vote in local council and Police and Crime Commissioner elections, and Mayor of London and London Assembly elections only).

Permission to enter or stay in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man (also called Leave to Enter or Remain) refers to a legal immigration status.

If you are a British citizen resident overseas then you must apply to become an overseas elector. You can either apply using registration at a previous address (if that was within the last 15 years) or residency at an address.  

Residency is best used for the qualification if you do not recall when you were last registered to vote in the UK.  You will need to provide evidence of your residency. The easiest way to register is via  www.gov.uk/register-to-vote and selecting the Residing abroad option during the application.  

This allows you to register and vote by proxy or post for up to three years before you need to register again.

If you are a member of the British Army, the Royal Navy or the Royal Air Force, you can register as a service voter. This allows you to register at an address in the UK (for a period of five years) whilst posted abroad.

Alternatively you can complete an application as an ordinary elector and be added to the register at your home address in the UK. Please contact the elections office or your 'unit registration officer' for further advice if required or visit www.gov.uk/register-to-vote. 

It is a legal requirement to respond to the Requests for Information we send you if the information we currently hold needs to be amended. Regulation 23 of the Representation of the People Act (England and Wales) 2001 outlines that electoral registration officers have a duty to request information from persons which is used to compile the parliamentary and local government registers of electors.

If any person fails to provide the information requested, they may be liable to a summary conviction or fine which is up to £1,000. You can respond to our requests for information via the internet, telephone or post. The quickest and easiest way to respond to the form is via the internet which will save the council money, details are on all the correspondence we send to you.