Well, I received an email from my constituency on Monday 24. This was in answer to my strongly worded complaint the preceding Saturday meticulously pointing out that by not having sent my postal vote they have effectively disenfranchised me. Their email reply apologised and said they were sending my ballot by First Class Post forthwith.
Today is Saturday 29 June. So far, no ballot.
If it arrives on Monday 1 July, in time for me to get it into the bureau La Poste, which is of course only open mornings, and my ballot can by some triumph of luck over ineptitude make it back to Cheltenham before close of count only three days later, then I will never know.
But at least Iāll know I have done my very best. And that alone will entitle me to wax lyrical on future political debate of UK politics
Apparently many people in the UK have not received their postal votes in a timely manner and are thus disenfranchised. The UK Electoral Commission have said that they plan to look into this āafter the electionā.
This is far from thread drift - this exemplifies the Kafkaesque society in which we liveā¦
I asked our constituency when my ballot papers were sent and where. I was told they were sent out by the printing company on June 12th and they confirmed my French address. I still have not received them. I have subsequently asked what postage was used and I have heard nothing.
There are strict guidelines drawn up by the electoral commission as to how international postal ballots are handled. Appropriate air mail international postage must be used. Unfortunately, some councils seem to not understand. Mine did arrive last Saturday and had the correct air mail international postage as did the return envelope. As it was posted last Monday, it has 10 days to get back. Hopefully enough.
The odd thing is that my husbandās postal ballot, from the same constituency and to the same address in France, did arrive and was duly marked and returned well in time to count.
My letter of complaint included this but received no explanation. I honestly think they havenāt a clue.
Have just complained to the electoral commission. I hope others will do the same. Papers arrived yesterday leaving three working days before the election to get back. Will they make it in time and how will I know? It is so unnecessary not to send them out sooner.
After not having received the postal vote forms a few years back, we decided to use a proxy vote with a (very reliable) friend back where we lived in the UK. As Iāve said elsewhere about getting birth certificates etc from the UK earlier this year, so-called āfirst class postā has been known to take up to a month to arrive here.
Itās worked for us so far. You can also get a postal vote filled in in the UK on your behalf too but I prefer to rely on a person directly rather than the post in any form
