The Role of Printing in Elections

Political campaigns place a crucial role in the democratic and electoral processes. Along with seeking to influence voters to place their votes on polling day, these campaigns provide the public with all of the information they need to make an informed choice in voting for the party whose values most align with their own.

From election flyers to polling booth signs, print plays a significant role in launching and communicating political campaigns. As the largest UK-based online printer, instantprint offers a key resource for political parties up and down the country during election time. As part of this, we have a responsibility to deliver an unbiased printing service that our clients can count on. 

Ahead of the UK local elections on the 5th May 2022, here’s everything we’re committed to doing to ensure we’re always providing a professional and reliable printing service that supports political parties to deliver high-quality campaigns and engage the electorate.

Unbiased Election Printing Service

As a rule, we do not favour any particular party and offer all political parties registered with the Electoral Commission the same world-class service we’re known for. 

We believe that all political candidates have the right to communicate their manifesto to the electorate, who in turn deserve to have all the necessary information they might need to make an informed decision on which party to vote for.

However, there are certain things we check artwork for before it goes to print. We receive thousands of pieces of artwork each week, and every single one is reviewed by our in-house Studio team as part of our free 10-point check. As well as spotting errors in resolution, colour and bleed set up, we’re also committed to flagging inappropriate content that might be deemed harmful or illegal. 

We understand that this can be a subjective practice and is subject to human error, meaning that some inappropriate content does occasionally pass through the system and may be spotted at another point in the print process. 

However, we’re confident that the rigorous training processes that we have in-house, equips our print experts with all the necessary knowledge to spot even the smallest mistake. Here’s everything we check for as standard every time you place an order as part of our right-first-time commitment:

1. File type – is the file in the correct format for printing?
2. Appropriate content – is the content deemed appropriate?
3. Size – is the artwork the right size?
4. Legibility – is text legible?
5. Resolution – will the overall quality of the finished print be high?
6. Safe zone – is important text kept within a 3mm safety area?
7. Bleed – is there sufficient bleed area and can we add it if not?
8. Colour – is the colour profile correct?
9. Transparency – are there any transparency issues?
10. Layout – does the artwork layout match the chosen product?

With election printing materials, we’ll also check to ensure an imprint is included on your artwork. On printed materials such as election flyers and posters, you must include the address of the printer (us) and the promoter (usually the person placing the print order). 

Ideally, the promoter will be registered with the Electoral Commission as a non-party campaigner, also known as a recognised third party. If you’re acting on behalf of an organisation, you should also include the name and address of the organisation in the imprint.

Please note: Not including an imprint on printed election material is an offence.

Here’s an example of a standard imprint:

instantprint LTD,
Unit A Brookfields Park, Manvers Way, Manvers, Rotherham.
Promoted by (Promoters name) on behalf of
(the campaign group),
Both of (Home or office address).

Sustainable Printing for Political Parties

Sustainability is a key initiative for the UK government, and voters will now more than ever be keen to cast their votes with a party whose environmental policies align with their own beliefs.

We’re dedicated to offering a sustainable printing solution to all of our clients. As well as sourcing all of our paper from FSC certified forests, we also only use the greenest possible options available to us: FSC Mix and FSC Recycled. Our recycled stock is available on a number of print favourites, including business cards and flyers. This option offers the same quality as our standard uncoated stock, but is made from 100% recycled material.

As we print on paper from FSC certified forests, we are able to add the official FSC stamp to your artwork before print. If this is something you’re interested in, please get in touch with our team by emailing artwork@instantprint.co.uk and we can add this for you.

Alongside sourcing sustainable printing stock, we’ve also been working with Achilles Carbon Reduce, the UK’s only accredited GHG (Greenhouse Gas) Certification Scheme, to measure our carbon footprint and set specific carbon reduction goals based on their findings. 

As part of their rigorous, independent Carbon Certification Programme, Achilles audit us annually to help us identify, manage and mitigate our carbon emissions. They also verify us in accordance with international standards, ISO14064.

We’ve taken the first step to becoming net-zero by achieving carbon neutral certification for 2020-2021 – and we’ve committed to achieving the same again every year after.

Not only does this mean that we’re operating more sustainably, but by printing with a carbon-neutral printer, you can reduce your party’s carbon footprint too!

We understand that the UK government has set a target for businesses to go carbon net-zero by 2050, however, we’ve got our sights set on achieving something a little more ambitious: instantprint has committed to achieving carbon net-zero status by 2030.

Dedicated Account Management Service

instantprint isn’t just an online printer. We offer a number of additional services to suit clients with complex printing needs at no extra charge.

If you set up a business account with us, you’ll be assigned your very own team who can support with competitive pricing, flexible payment options, bespoke quantities and products that you can’t find on our website, organising direct mail campaigns, offering personalised advice and splitting up your order to delivering to multiple addresses.

If this sounds like something your team could benefit from, don’t hesitate to get in touch today.

Back in 2021, our account management team helped local Green Party MP Mandy Rossi deliver a winning print campaign, right in the middle of a global pandemic. Whilst planning her party’s campaign, Rossi told us:

“Throughout the rest of the year, we mainly use the web order option and buy our print directly online as it’s quick and simple. When it comes to local elections, we use the account management service because it’s useful for when an order is a bit more complicated and you can’t choose specific features of your print online. It helps to be able to talk it through and to also get exact quantities at a better price.

Paul is always friendly and helpful and responds quickly – which is exactly what we need at the moment! We know that our print is always in good hands.”

And we couldn’t have wished for a better result for her, as she won her seat for the Green party in Kent. You can read Rossi’s success story here, where she shares her top print products for successful local election campaigning and which other strategies the party used to complement their print.

Want to share your print success story with us for a chance to be featured in a client spotlight article? Email us at enjoy@instantprint.co.uk.

When you order your printed election materials with instantprint, you’re in reliable hands. We’ll do everything in our power to provide outstanding service and deliver high-quality print, including offering a range of complex print services such as order splitting and organising your direct mail campaign for you. To get your local election campaign off to a winning start, check out our full election printing range here.