82. Applications to vote by post must be signed and state an applicant’s date of birth and national insurance number (or state that he/she does not have one). The signature, date of birth and national insurance number on the application must correspond with the information provided to the Chief Electoral Officer on registration. If the Chief Electoral Officer is not satisfied with this correspondence, he/she may refuse to grant an absent vote application. The differences between this application to vote by post in Northern Ireland and the one described above (para. 36 ff) for the rest of the United Kingdom are: 1) a further information is requested (the national insurance number or the statement that he/she does not have one); 2) that the information provided when applying to vote by post is checked against the information already available at the Electoral Office (since the voter has to be registered and this information is a requirement to register); 3) the fact that the electoral officer strictly controls that the information corresponds with the one that appears on the register; and 4) the need to have a suitable reason for voting by post.
