The Royal Mail Postal Voting product provides a number of options for customers running election campaigns. If you are conducting a time critical election campaign, involving mail responses the Royal Mail Postal Voting product could offer you an extraction and return of mail items on the evening of your polling day and a sortation of your responses to your required order over the course of your election campaign.

• You can choose Mail Centre sweeps to extract and return responses to hand on the evening of your polling day.
• You can choose a pre-sortation of your returns to your specified selections over the duration of your election campaign.
• Choose to have your election returns separated from your day to day mail.
• Choose to have a mutually agreed timed delivery.
• We will give you help and support to plan for your election campaign.
• A slightly amended first class Freepost Plus or Business Reply Plus envelope design must be used, which includes purple flashes for identification purposes.
• We will provide you with a number of unique Response Plus licences and associated addresses to use for the Postal Voting product.
• Elections campaigns must be planned with Royal Mail at least 12 weeks in advance*.

These attributes of the Postal Voting product can be combined in a number of ways. For example we anticipate you may use the elements of the product in the following ways:

A – you are happy for your election mail to be returned with your day to day mail. If you do not require a polling day sweep then you should use our standard products and you do not need to use this product. If you do want a day polling day sweep see E&F below.
B – you wish to have your election mail returns separated from your day to day deliveries during the campaign. In this instance you will choose to have your mail pre-sorted. Your mail will be delivered with your day to day mail but your election returns will be separated. You may wish to add a timed delivery, which will alter your day to day delivery time during the course of your election campaign.
C – you wish to have your election returns sorted into a number of specific selections in addition to your day to day mail. You should select a pre-sortation of your mail. You can then opt for Royal Mail to deliver your election returns back to you.
D – you may wish to have scenario C but do not want Royal Mail to delivery your items back each day. In this instance you must opt to collect the mail each day from the local Mail Centre. In scenarios A, B, C and D you now need to decide if you want to add a Main or Secondary Mail Centre sweep.
E – you just require a sweep to take place in your local Mail Centre (Main Mail Centre sweep) on polling day. Mail can be either be collected from the Mail Centre or delivered by us at a time agreed with you.
F - you require sweeps to be conducted in neighbouring mail centres (secondary Mail Centre sweeps) in addition to your main Mail Centre. You will need to let us know when planning your election campaign. You will be required to collect the your mail from the secondary mail centres on polling day.

For scenarios B, E & F you will need to select one of your unique Response Plus licences and associated addresses. For scenarios C & D you will need to choose as many unique Response Plus licences and associated addresses as you require (one for each sortation selection). Royal Mail will provide you with a number of unique Response Plus licences and associated addresses when the Postal Voting product is first set up.

With Royal Mail Postal Vote you must be conducting an election involving postal responses. You will need to plan in your election campaign with Royal Mail at least 12 weeks in advance. In conjunction with you we’ll draw up a full plan detailing your specific requirements and the full details of your actual election campaign. Your Account Manager can go through this with you in more detail or you can contact our sales centre on 08457 950950.

The price is applicable for each election campaign you undertake and will vary according to which service choices you pick.

To obtain a campaign estimate please click here to launch PV Price Calculator to use our Postal Voting calculator.

Please contact your Royal Mail Account Manager. If you don’t have one, please call our sales centre on 08457 950950.

The Postal Voting ‘Best Practice Guide’ contains all the information you will need to know regarding setting the product up and meeting the technical specification for the service. Our largest users of the Postal Voting product are Local Authorities and therefore this guide is written with terms and a style relevant to this sector. If you are not a Local Authority customer but are running an election campaign and are considering using the Postal Vote product then you should still follow the information and instructions in the guide. In the first instance however, please contact your Account Manager or the Royal Mail sales centre on 08457 950950.

*Should an election be called with less than 12 weeks notice please contact your Account Handler or the Royal Mail sales centre on 08457 950950 to discuss.

Best Practice Guide
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