17.—(1) The counting officer must as soon as practicable after the publication of the notice of the referendum send to each voter and proxy an official poll card.
(2) The official poll card must be sent or delivered—
(a)in the case of a voter, to the voter’s qualifying address; and
(b)in the case of a proxy, to the proxy’s address as shown in the list of proxies.
(3) The official poll card must be in the form set out in Form 8, 9, 10 or 11 in the Appendix (as the case may be), or a form to like effect, and must set out—
(a)the name of the relevant council and of the neighbourhood area;
(b)the name of the voter, the voter’s qualifying address and number on the register;
(c)the date and hours of the poll and the situation of the voter’s polling station;
(d)such other information as the counting officer thinks appropriate,
and different information may be provided in pursuance of sub-paragraph (d) to different voters or to different descriptions of voter.
(4) In the case of a voter who has an anonymous entry in the register, instead of containing the matter mentioned in paragraph (3)(b), the poll card must contain such matter as is specified in the appropriate form in the Appendix.
(5) In this rule references to a voter—
(a)are to a person who is registered in the register of local government electors on the last day for the publication of notice of the referendum; and
(b)include a person then shown in the register as below voting age if (but only if) it appears from the register that the person will be of voting age on the day fixed for the poll.
(6) If the returning officer (or, as the case may be, the counting officer) for each relevant election and the counting officer for the referendum think fit, an official poll card issued under this rule may be combined with the official poll card issued at every relevant election.