25.—(1) Where the returning officer receives a valid declaration of identity without the postal ballot paper (or papers or, as the case may be, all of the papers) to which it relates, the returning officer may, at any time prior to the close of the poll, check the list kept under regulation 24(2) to see whether the number (or numbers) of any postal ballot paper to which the declaration relates is entered in that list.
(2) Where the returning officer receives a postal ballot paper without the declaration of identity to which it relates, the returning officer may, at any time prior to the close of the poll, check the list kept under regulation 24(3) to see whether the number of that ballot paper is entered in that list.
(3) The returning officer shall conduct the checks required by paragraphs (1) and (2) as soon as practicable after the receipt, under rule 36(1), of packets from every polling station in the local government area for which the election (or elections) was (or were) held.
(4) Where the ballot paper number in the list matches that number on a valid declaration of identity or, as the case may be, the postal ballot paper, the returning officer shall retrieve that declaration or paper.
(5) The returning officer shall then take the appropriate steps under these Regulations as though any document earlier marked “provisionally rejected” had not been so marked and shall amend the document accordingly.