Royal Mail Postal Voting help definitions
The Royal Mail Postal Voting product allows our customers to design the service they require to optimise the running of their election campaigns. If you are conducting a time-critical election campaign involving mailed responses (votes returned by post), the Royal Mail Postal Voting product can offer the extraction and handover of returned Ballot papers on the evening of your Polling Day, known as a ‘Polling Day sweep’, and/or the sortation of your responses over the course of your election campaign - known as ‘Pre-sorted delivery’. You can also choose from a number of delivery options.
This help section explains how to use the calculator. If you require additional information please contact the dedicated Postal Voting Team at Royal Mail on 08456 564998, or your Royal Mail Account handler, or the Royal Mail Customer Services team on 03457 950950.
| Postcode Area |
| This is the first one or two letters of the Postcode Area which covers most of the constituency, or your main offices. |
| Section 1: Campaign details |
| Length of the campaign (in days, excluding Sundays) |
| Please input the number of days the campaign will run for. |
| How many Saturdays does the campaign cover? |
| Please input the number of Saturdays the campaign will cover. |
| Number of unique Response Plus licences and their associated addresses that are required |
| Please input the number of different unique Response Plus licence numbers and their associated addresses you will be using. For example if you are choosing Pre-sorted delivery and require 12 sortation selections then you must use 12 different Response Plus licences for Postal Voting returns and their associated addresses and therefore you should enter '12' in this field. |
| Do you require a polling day sweep at your main Mail Centre (main Mail Centre sweep)? |
| You can choose Mail Centre sweeps to extract and have presented to you any returned Ballot papers which are to hand on the evening of your Polling Day. The main Mail Centre is your local main mail processing centre. Please indicate if you wish to have a Main Mail Centre sweep. |
| How many neighbouring Mail Centre sweeps (secondary Mail Centre sweeps) do you require on Polling Day? |
| If you wish to have additional Mail Centre sweeps please enter the number of extra Mail Centres (neighbouring Mail Centres) you require sweeps from. |
| Number of registered postal voters |
| How many postal voters do you have in total (to mail)? |
| Estimated response rate |
| What percentage response rate do you expect to receive to the Ballot paper mailing(s)? |
| Section 2: Pre-sortation |
| Pre-sortation of your mail |
| Royal Mail can pre-sort your returns to your specified 'selections' during the election campaign. 'Selections' will be determined by the Response Plus licences and associated addresses you choose to use. Scenarios B, C and D on the Postal Voting website explain when this service may be required. |
| Pre-sortation required |
| Please indicate if you would like pre-sortation of the returned Ballot papers. |
| Section 3: Options to obtain your mail returned Ballot papers |
| Would you like a Timed Delivery during the campaign? |
| Over the duration of the campaign you can arrange a mutually agreeable time for responses to be delivered back to you, if you wish. This option can be selected if you have not opted for Pre-sortation of your responses. If you have chosen pre-sort delivery with more than 1 pre-sortation selection then you should not select Timed Delivery, but instead you should select a dedicated delivery, or alternatively you can collect your mail from the Mail Centre. |
| Or would you like a dedicated delivery? |
| If you have chosen pre-sortation you can arrange for Royal Mail to deliver the returned Ballot papers to you at a mutually agreeable time. Please note that if you have chosen for Royal Mail to sort to more than one pre-sortation selection you must choose either a dedicated delivery (this option) or to collect the mail from us yourself on a daily basis. |
| Distance in miles from the main Mail Centre to your delivery address and return to the Mail Centre |
| Please input the distance from the Mail Centre to the delivery address and return to the Mail Centre. The Postal Voting Team or your Account handler .can confirm the address of your main Mail Centre. |
| Or would you like to collect your mail? |
| If you have chosen the pre-sortation option you can arrange to collect your mail from the Mail Centre. It is important to note that if you have chosen more than one pre-sortation selection but do not require a dedicated delivery you will need to collect your mail from the Mail Centre. If this is the case please indicate a 'yes' in this section. |
| Number of collections each day that you wish to make |
| Please indicate using the drop-down box the number of times each day you would like to collect your mail from us, if you don't choose delivery. |
| On which days would you like delivery or collection? |
| Please choose the appropriate option. |
