The Council has a legal duty to conduct an annual review of the electoral register, sometimes referred to as the annual canvass.
As part of this process we send a canvass communication to every household on the islands.
We use the responses that householders provide:
- to identify potential voters who are not yet registered and send them an Invitation to Register; and
- to take action to remove the entries of voters who are no longer resident.
The annual canvass of the electoral register runs over the autumn, culminating in the publication of a revised register on 1 December each year.
Monthly updates
After the new electoral register is published on 1 December, we normally update that register on a monthly basis under the scheme of rolling registration.
Depending on the date an application is received, a new entry will normally be included on the register on the first working day of the following month or the month after that.
In the event of an election, the law allows you to register to vote up to 12 working days before the election takes place.