Voting and registering to vote

To vote in an election you must be registered to vote and aged 18 or over on polling day.

Registering to vote

If you are not registered, you can apply through the GOV.UK website or contact us direct. You will need your National Insurance number and date of birth.

GOV.UK: register to vote

You need to register to vote individually rather than as a household. This system is called individual electoral registration.

Electoral register

The electoral register – sometimes called the 'electoral roll' – lists the names and addresses of everyone who's registered to vote.

By law, we must keep the register of electors up-to-date. We will:

• update it once a month – rolling registration
• begin a full annual update in July each year
• republish it on 1 December

Annual update to the electoral register

By law, information on the electoral register is checked for accuracy against information held by the government's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Between July and November each year, all households in Thurrock receive a letter showing details held on the electoral register for their address. This is known as the annual canvass. The letter will tell you what you need to do – you may need to respond even if details for your household are correct.

A revised update to the electoral register is published on 1 December each year.

Voting in elections

If you are registered for an election, you will receive a poll card. The card will tell you which polling station you should go to on election day to vote. Polling stations are open from 7am until 10pm.

If you cannot get to a polling station, you can apply to vote by post or by proxy. Your poll card will have a postal vote application on the reverse, or you can contact us for an application form.

Election candidates for whom you can vote

Names, addresses and parties of candidates are included on a 'statement of persons nominated'.

Statements are published on our elections page as soon as possible after the close of nominations.

Contacting us

If you need to contact us about voting, registering to vote, or the annual update, you can do so below.