The Elections and Democratic Structures Committee are scheduled to meet on Tuesday 4th November 2025. The committee will be discussing elections and registration activity in Doncaster. They will also review the minutes of their previous meeting.

Registration Activity

The committee is scheduled to discuss a report on registration activity. The report covers key work being done by the Electoral Services Team regarding the Register of Electors and the annual canvass¹. The report states that the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) is required to perform a full annual review of the Electoral Register each year by contacting all residential addresses to determine if the information held is complete and accurate. The purpose of this annual canvass is to identify citizens who should be registered but are not, and to remove electors who are no longer at a property. A revised version of the electoral register must be published by 1 December each year.

The report also mentions the ERO's responsibility to implement changes required by the Elections Act 2022². The annual canvass involves a 'data step' to determine which properties are likely to have an unchanged household composition. The ERO will follow one of three routes for each property:

• Route 1: Matched properties where data indicates no change in household composition. Residents are contacted to confirm the information and only need to reply if there is a change.
• Route 2: Unmatched properties where data matching suggests a change or the property is empty. These properties are required to respond to the ERO's correspondence.
• Route 3: Care Homes or Homes of Multiple Occupancy (HMO), which are required to provide an update on their current occupants.

According to the report, as of 17 June 2025, Doncaster had 224,233 registered electors and 147,592 properties. 104,169 (70.58%) properties were successfully matched for Route 1. After a data mining exercise using local datasets, a further 11,168 properties matched, bringing the total to 115,337 (78.15%) for Route 1 and 32,207 properties for Route 2.

Letters and emails have been sent to those in Route 1, and letters and emails were sent to 32,012 properties in Route 2, with 6,890 (21.52%) responding. Reminder letters were sent to Route 2 properties on 29 September 2025. After 27 October 2025, any remaining outstanding properties will be contacted by telephone or personal visit.

The report also provides an update on the postal vote reapplication process under the Elections Act 2022, which reduces the maximum period a person can hold an absent vote from five years to three years. As a result, any elector with an absent vote older than three years on 31 January 2026 will need to reapply for a postal vote.

The report notes that at the start of the process, there were 51,210 electors who needed to renew their absent vote by 31 January 2026. As of the report's writing, 8,228 renewal applications had been received, leaving 43,982 outstanding.

The next steps include emailing electors with a registered email address, followed by postal write-outs with paper application forms. Social media content and website updates will also be used to coordinate these communications.

The report notes that paper forms cost more and take longer to process than online applications. The report also states that a high number of applications need further investigation due to names, dates of birth and national insurance numbers not matching the original registration on the electoral register.

Elections Activity

The Elections and Democratic Structures Committee will also be considering a report providing an update on current elections activity, upcoming changes, by-elections and neighbourhood planning referendums.

The report provides a detailed update on the results of the Local Government By-Election for the Bentley Ward held on Thursday 21 August 2025.

According to the report, there were eight candidates in the Bentley ward by-election. The total eligible electorate was 12,758, with 2,750 postal votes issued and 1,442 (52.44%) returned and verified. 992 (9.91%) electors voted in person at the ten polling stations in the Bentley ward. The total turnout was 19.08%.

The report states that Isaiah-John Reasbeck was duly elected.

The results were as follows:

The report also includes an update on voter ID, noting that the digital HM Armed Forces Veteran Card officially launched on 17 October 2025. As the Veteran Card has already been added to the list of accepted voter ID, it will be accepted in all polling stations in either paper or digital format.

Previous Minutes

The Elections and Democratic Structures Committee will also be asked to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 15th July 2025.