About the Electoral Register and registering to vote

Register to vote

The Register of Electors is a list of the names and addresses of everyone who is registered to vote. You need to register in order to be able to vote. If you are not registered to vote, you won't have the chance to have a say on who represents you and you may find it difficult to get credit, loans, a mortgage or bank account as the register is used by credit reference agencies. Being registered for council tax and/or benefits does not mean that you will automatically appear on the Register of Electors.

To register you must be:

• aged 16 or over (16 and 17-year-olds are not able to vote in any elections at present in England) 
• a citizen of Britain, the Commonwealth or Irish Republic
• a European Union (EU) citizen of Denmark, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, or Spain
• a 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 and this has continued without a break

Apply online at www.gov.uk/register-to-vote: This is the quickest and easiest way to register. You will need your national insurance number. The application should take no longer than five minutes to complete.
Apply by telephone: You can phone Electoral Services on 01635 519464. You will need to have your national insurance number to hand.
Apply by post: A form can be posted to you. You will need to complete and return this in the envelope provided.

If you have lost or are not sure of your national insurance number, you can visit the government's website to find this.

Updating your registration details

You can visit www.gov.uk/register-to-vote to:

• change your address
• change your name
• change your nationality 
• opt out of the 'open register' - the version of the electoral register that's available for anyone to buy

To do this, you need to register again with your new details (even if you're already registered to vote). You will need your national insurance number. The application should take no longer than five minutes to complete.

Please note: You will also need to reapply for any absent votes that you had in place, such as a postal vote, if any updates are made to your address or name. Please see our post and proxy vote page for further information.

If you are unable to complete this online, please contact the Electoral Services team on 01635 519464 or email vote@westberks.gov.uk.

British citizens living overseas

If you are a British citizen currently living outside of the UK, you may be eligible to be registered as an overseas elector. Being registered as an overseas elector will enable you to vote in UK Parliamentary elections. 

You can register to vote as an overseas voter if:

• you were previously registered to vote in the UK
• you were previously a UK resident but were not registered to vote or were not old enough to be on the electoral register before you left the UK

To register as an overseas elector visit www.gov.uk/register-to-vote website and select 'British citizen living in another country' when asked where do you live. Once registered, you will have to set up a proxy or postal vote. For further information on postal or proxy votes, please visit our postal and proxy vote web page.

You will be required to renew your registration every three years, and the Electoral Services team will contact you when you are required to renew your registration. 

How to vote if you are homeless or have no fixed address

If you don't have a permanent home, you can register to vote at an address where you spend most of your time. This could be a shelter, boat, sofa surfing or any place where you sleep or spend a large part of your day. It doesn't need to be a postal address.

You can't register online. You must download a no fixed address registration form or collect one in person at West Berkshire Council Offices.

In order to vote at a polling station, you will need photo ID but if you do not have any of the accepted photo ID you can apply for a Voter Authority Certificate for free. Further details can be found on our Voter ID web page.

The electoral register and the open register 

The electoral register is a list of everyone who is registered to vote. There are two versions of the register:

The electoral register

The electoral register lists the names and addresses of everyone who is registered to vote. The register is used for electoral purposes, such as making sure only eligible people can vote. It is also used for other limited purposes specified in law, such as detecting crime (fraud), calling people for jury service and checking credit applications.

The open register

The open register is an extract of the electoral register but is not used for elections. It can be bought by any person, company or organisation. For example, it is used by businesses and charities to confirm name and address details. Your name will be included in the open register unless you ask for your details to be removed (opt out). Removing your details from the open register does not affect your right to vote or credit rating. You can contact us any time to have your details removed from the open register.

Personal data in the registers is always be processed in line with data protection legislation.

Viewing the electoral register

The electoral register is not available to view online, however, the register for West Berkshire is available to view, under supervision, between 9am to 5pm from Monday to Thursday, and 9am to 4:30pm on Fridays, at the West Berkshire Council Offices. Please contact Electoral Services team to arrange inspection.

Please note that:

• by law, we can only provide the current year's register for inspection - once a new register is published, the previous versions of both full and open registers are no longer available for public inspection
• it's not possible to take a copy or photograph the full register, but you're welcome to make notes by hand
• names on the electoral register are listed by polling district and by street name and are not in alphabetical order
• under the Regulations referred to above, anyone who fails to observe these conditions is committing a criminal offence; the penalty is a fine of up to level 5 (currently £5,000)

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the Electoral Services team on 01635 519464 or email vote@westberks.gov.uk.