Mike
I feel your uncertainty. I have had trouble with the post in BELGIUM so decided to get my postal vote sent to an address in the UK I knew I was going to be at last weekend.
What I can not understand is why voting office wait Soooooooooo late before sending them out. If they know there is an election on (and who did not 6 months ago) and you have registered to vote well in advance (I rekon most of those posting here had done) then why not send them out sooner?
Some good pointers from Brian Cave earlier in this topic
I must admit I could have tried harder to get my ballot paper, but since John Redwood, Conservative Wokingham has being our local MP for 28 years and will be again for another 5 years, my vote has little significance, a bit like his political career....
We're still waiting too but I instigated the emergency proxy with the Vale of the White Horse District Council, emailed the forms back over the weekend and they obviously had people working yesterday on the bank holiday as we received a personal reply telling us our proxy application had been received and the necessary forms would be dispatched straight away. Pleased that at least one district council is taking this problem seriously but roll on online voting.
I can't see what the problem is, we applied online to RB Kingston on Thames in February for postal voting, they suggested we recommend a Proxy voter, I refused. We got our voting papers 3 weeks ago and we have duly voted. No problem at all!
Although the last General Election we did have problems, this year it was a breeze! I guess if you haven't got your voting envelopes by now, it's too late.
Received mine on Saturday, having phoned the council office responsible, and having been told the form was on its way.
Duly completed, and posted on the same day, but Monday having been a Bank Holiday in the Former UK, and the form needing to be at the voting centre by 22:00 on Thursday, it's cutting it a bit fine, I think.
I have voted like this at least once before and it worked fine then. Five years later no. Brian Cave is doing good work on this and as much feed back as possible needs to be assembled and then circulated to the appropriate authorities, including new MPs immediately after the election. This should all be simplicity itself but it's clear that it is far from that!
Nor has mine & another poor show.....
Hi Mike, Registered weeks ago and have received voting papers voted and in post. Suggest you telephone them.I was surprised at the efficiency to be honest.
I phoned Fenland district council last Thursday to say my papers had not arrived only to be told that the forms had only just been posted. I said they had more confidence in the postal services of france & UK, than I have. ( especially with 2 bank holidays). As of today 5th Mai 2015, still not arrived. Incompetent or an attack on expat voters ?
I am now being helped by the Leader of Wandsworth Council to try and get an emergency proxy vote sorted! Calling in a few very old favours! (I stood as a candidate in an election in Wandsworth in the 70s and was on numerous committees etc locally ans was in the Town Hall virtually very day for more than 10 years! (They all though I had b'd off but oh no!)
I am in the same position. I telephoned my old constituency, Wealden, on the 29th only to be told it was the fault of Royal Mail. It is not good enough that they blame the courrier - the ballot papers should have been sent out with plenty of time to arrive and be returned. I am livid about it all.
I just had a return email from the Leader of Wandsworth Council (it's true I know him well) who is looking into it for me. I'll take up this emergency proxy business as one of my sons lives in Wandsworth currently. I agree that considering this fixed term arrangement (but I don't agree with that BTW) they should surely have been able to arrange things better. No use at all seems to be made of the internet and everybody knows postal systems have been curtailed. At the same time there were cases of wholesale rigging of votes in certain constituencies and the recent but municipal election example of Tower Hamlets should not go unremarked upon. There seems to be clear evidence that expats are taken for expatsies!!!!!!
Steve, your proxy does not need a card.
In the last election our proxy did not receive one and she was still able to vote on our behalf.
However, she found that the council, Stroud, had not put the P by pur names to show that we had a proxy vote.
If she had not been a determined Irish lady, who refused to budge until they had rung their office to allow her to cast our votes, we would have been disenfranchised.
There are so many steps where the procedure can fall down.
I am now on first name terms with the Electoral Registration Officer for the South West.
People might like to know more about emergency proxy voting forms.
Not that it's necessarily a panacea, my proxy voter hasn't yet received the card she needs (sent out Saturday apparently, maddening, why wait until the last minute? )
At the last election which, by the way, was our last one after the fifteen rule, we both received an envelope with the election pack, instructions etc. Unfortunately, they had omitted to enclose the voting form!! When we phoned up Hillingdon they said it was a problem with the printers. The voting forms were printed by one company and the rest by another. As the voting forms weren't ready in time they just mindlessly sent out the rest. They promised to courier them to us but, of course, they never did. We even complained to the Conservative constituency ofice but they weren't bothered either, probably as they knew they would have enough votes to get in anyway.
The frustration of this situation, being disenfranchised… not only do we only have a voting life of 15 years once we leave, during that period the votes we get seem to be rationed, those more cynical might use stronger words!
We have registered, we have received a letter from our borough confirming this, we have also received brown voters cards also re-confirming our registration. Waiting until Tuesday 28th April and no postal votes – I call and am told to wait, they are in the system don't worry. I call again on Thursday 30th April expressing my concern, I am told:
- They've had problems with the printers
- They've had problems with Royal Mail
- The election timings make this process very difficult…
I feel my blood pressure rising, this election has not been a surprise, for the first time in history we have a fixed term parliament so I guess we’ll know that in five years time in 2020 the election will be in May, on Thursday 7th May 2020 to be more precise – I know this, I can even mark it in my diary so I can be re-reminded of the frustration of the postal vote system…
Enough, I've emailed every organisation I can think of and have now completed Emergency Proxy Voting forms and am currently awaiting confirmation that they are validated so our son can use them to vote – he’s already threatened to vote SNP, however, we're not so worried about this as our votes like his are in Lambeth London!
Hoping that this Proxy business works!!!!
It is most important that this matter is reported and that the new Government takes action.-
If you have not been able to exercise your right to vote ----
1. Firstly complain to the ERO at the council office.
BUT ALSO ------
2. Complain to the Electoral Commission – stating clearly the name of the failing Constituency and circumstances. MPhillips@electoralcommission.org.uk
3. Send copies to the French (English language) journal The Connexion news@connexionfrance.com
That journal is compiling a dossier of these instances.
4. And if you can also copy to me. I am also compiling a dossier – lefourquet@gmail.com
A proposal has already been made that after the election the new Government should seek a report from the Electoral Commission
seeking information from the 650 Electoral Registration Officers with the following points
- How many overseas voters are on their lists and in which countries they live.
- How many were sent voting papers and on which date they were sent.
- What postage was put on the package.
- How many were returned in time for the election
- How many were received too late for counting.
I was at Munich airport yesterday David and I didn’t see them!
We returned our application for postal votes, in separate envelopes, by return of post.
Getting in touch with our Council, Stroud, we found that our application for postal votes had not been received. This is the second time that this happened!
Fortunately, one of our old neighbours will act as a proxy for us.
If I had not bothered to check, we would have been waiting in vain.
Can I urge all of you who have not received your papers, or not in time to return them, to contact the Electoral Commission.
This is all information that they need to change voting procedure.
We need electronic voting now.
This would increase participation by overseas voters, it is no good having a campaign to increase voter registration if the papers do not arrive in time for those votes to be counted.