The Police and Crime Commissioner elections for Kent are taking place on Thursday 2 May 2024. There are several things to consider:

1. Are you registered to vote? Once registered to vote, your voter registration will remain in place unless you move or we receive information that you no longer live at a property. If you are not already registered to vote, you can register to vote in these elections up until Tuesday 16 April 2024 at gov.uk/register-to-vote

2. If you vote at the polling station, do you hold one of the approved forms of photographic ID? You must show one of the approved forms of photographic ID at a polling station in order to cast your vote. You can check the list of approved Voter ID athttps://www.dover.gov.uk/Council--Democracy/Elections/Voter-ID.aspx. If you do not already have one of the approved forms of photo ID you can apply for free Voter ID up until 5pm on Wednesday 24 April 2024. You can apply at gov.uk/voting-photo-id

3. If you can’t make it to your polling station to vote, have you set up a postal vote or proxy vote? You can apply for a postal vote before 5pm on 17 April 2024 at gov.uk/apply-postal-vote or you can apply for a one-off proxy vote before 5pm on 24 April 2024 at www.gov.uk/apply-proxy-vote.

Important changes to postal voting

The Elections Act 2022 has made significant changes to the postal voting process and requires most existing postal voters to reapply for their postal vote. The changes are listed below.

We now have to verify your identity when you apply for a postal vote. This is done in a similar way to when you register to vote, by including your National Insurance Number as part of the application. Most existing postal voters will need to reapply for their postal vote in order to undergo this verification. See below for details.

Anyone who applied for a postal vote before the new rules came into force on 31 October 2023 must reapply for their postal vote before 31 January 2026 or their postal vote will be cancelled after that date.

You can reapply for your postal vote at any time before 31 January 2026. The easiest way to reapply is to go online at https://www.gov.uk/apply-postal-vote

Paper application forms will be posted out in December 2025, unless the postal voter has already updated their postal vote before this date.

We have recently emailed this information to the postal voters that we hold an email address for. If someone in your household has a postal vote but has not received an email or this ‘Keep Me Posted’, please feel free to share the weblink and information with them.

If you have a query, or need further information, please see our web pages at https://www.dover.gov.uk/elections or contact us on vote@dover.gov.uk or by telephone on 01304 872344.