I Have No Vote in the General Election, Despite Being a Council Tax Paying British Citizen

[TheChandler]

Just this. Am fuming. I should be eligible to vote in Scotland.

I moved overseas on a temporary one year contract with work in September last year, renting out my house for six months. This meant I was removed from the Electoral Register due to a spot check as it did not then tally with the Council Tax register.

I wrote to the Electoral Registrar informing him that by his proposed date of removal (1st April) I would be back paying council tax for my property, as the tenants were leaving and had no further plans to rent it out, and that i was concerned that the closeness to the GE would prejudice my right to vote.

Nevertheless, he informed me that his decision could not be revised, that I would be removed and that I should register as an overseas elector for a postal vote.

I did this, and the postal vote hasn't arrived in time. Nothing at all, despite being a mainstream European country. Post tends to be very reliable.

So I am paying council tax for a property I own in the UK, am a British citizen, and I will have no vote. And by coincidence, I'm actually back for a visit tonight, staying in my property.

Any suggestions?

I moved overseas on a temporary one year contract with work in September last year

Hth

83ash - I would be interested to hear how you reconcile the advice given on the given by halfwayupaladder, to the effect that no removals would be done before the 2015 general election, and that effort at follow up would be made. presumably the advice is wrong. Clearly, as my circumstances show, removing someone from the electoral register so close to a general election is prejudicial to their right to vote.

i'd also be really interested to hear the ERO'S policy on compliance with articles 6 and 13 of the echr and with article 41 of the charter on fundamental rights of the eu - I assume it has one. The ERO should also be aware that EU fundamental rights, such as the right to good administration, are interpreted very purposively and telelogically when combined with the right of freedom of movement.

I must say that when I asked the same question of the ERO, I got the impression that they were totally unaware of the law in this area.

what you describe sounds like indirect discrimination against women to me - in that it has a disproportionate effect on one gender. simply saying that it isn't a policy specifically directed towards women or intended to target them is completely unacceptable.

tarka - what if my contact was ended, I resigned, I returned home for personal reasons, etc. - where is this law to be found that determines if one leaves a country for whatever reason, one automatically becomes resident in another country - I am under the impression that the right to vote can be proven under existing legislation in a number of ways, relevant to my situation being the ground of a local connection.

I'm not sure of the qualifying criteria but also look into Proxy voting.....

You were not just removed from the register on a whim - the records didn't tally, you were informed of the decision and had a right of appeal but you missed the deadline!

well, actually everypenny1, there is a further right of appeal, but I was refused that and was given no reasons as to why.

where is this law to be found that determines if one leaves a country for whatever reason, one automatically becomes resident in another country

well it isn't instant but if you are abroad for more than 3 months you are no longer classed as habitually resident in this country. You lose eligibility to access NHS services for free, lose eligibility to certain benefits etc Owning a home in this country that you pay council tax on doesn't cancel out that to all intents and purposed you are currently classed as resident abroad.

You shouldn't have been on the electoral register at that address when your tenants were there (or now if you are only visiting and not actually living there). You should have told them and registered as an overseas voter when you moved. If you had done that last September when you moved abroad you wouldn't be having this issue.

tarka - 'you shouldn't have been on the electorl register at that address when your tenants were there' - err, no, indeed not. that's why I wasn't. where on earth did you get that idea from/

it should be possible to exercise your freedom of movement within the EU without the authorities becoming over-excited about your doing so, as otherwise it impedes your right and the functioning of the internal market. it is also of course perfectly possible to move between two places, change your mind, move back and forth and so on, or without placing undue weight on one criterion while ignoring others - I have not of course given full information here, but lets just say there are other reasons why I should not have lost the right to vote that were not taken into account.

thanks 83ash - I agree, it is the responsibility of the Scottish government to audit its policies and procedures for compliance with European law.

This meant I was removed from the Electoral Register due to a spot check as it did not then tally with the Council Tax register.

Seems to me if you had your affairs in order when you moved overseas, you wouldn't have been on the electoral register at that address when they did the spot check.

I don't see how asking you to fill in a form to become an overseas voter is stopping your freedom of movement.

Sounds like another (predictably tiresome) case where all the warnings before were ignored/dismissed, and now it's a case of "who'd have thought it ?"

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30842676

I bet if any hard cases make it to the news, the official reply will be "we had no way of knowing this would happen."

Honestly it's not. It's just a case of someone not filling in the forms when they move abroad.

It sounds to me that these processes are there to prevent electoral fraud. Although your situation sounds very frustrating, I am glad to learn they are rigorously enforcing them.

To be honest, it sounds as if you are looking for an argument about this. Why not simply ask, has the postal vote been posted out, what address did they use?. Can you obtain a copy while you are briefly back in the UK?

Why did you not register as an overseas voter, if this was what was recommended?

thanks for your magnificence in electoral law tarka. i'm not sure what agenda you are pursuing, but it would help if you read the op, got the facts rights which are stated there and didn't comment on the basis of facts which may be relevant but not mentioned, due to the above reasons.

What's the point of taking it to further appeal? They are only going to uphold the original correct decision and waste more time.

The only way the human rights act might apply is if you have now registered as an overseas voter before the deadline and your postal vote doesn't arrive in time. That hasn't happened yet. I doubt you'll get anywhere with them having breached HR legislation for removing you from the electoral register since there is a procedure to apply for a vote as an overseas citizen and you failed to follow it.

I don't have an agenda. I just moved abroad (on a similarly temporary basis) last June. So I know how easy it was to register as an overseas voter. It was on all the online lists for "people to tell when moving abroad". I've only commented on and highlighted parts of your OP .

I have absolutely correctly registered as an overseas voter rafa - the problem is I have not received my vote.

the point of further appeal would have been that they had not taken all relevant facts into account in making their decision - an omission that might have been remedied if they had provided an appeal...I'm simply going by what the relevant legislation states. the council tax register is not the only way of determining eligibility on the electoral roll.

and yes, silver birch, you're absolutely damned right i'm looking for an argument about this. I am absolutely incandescent with rage at the prospect of being unable to vote in the general election, despite lengthy contact with the appropriate officials, registering as advised, and so on.

the problem is that they fiddled about with the electoral roll too close to a general election.

In September when you moved or in the last few weeks? If you were registered as an overseas voter when they checked the register, I'm not sure why they removed you from the register.

You probably haven't received your vote yet because they've only just been sent out in the last few days. It doesn't mean tbey aren't sending it at all.

Unfortunately this can happen. I lived in Belgium for a decade and was registered as an overseas voter. In one election my papers didn't arrive in time and another election the voting slip was missing so I couldn't submit my vote. Frustrating.

. It's unfortunate that your postal vote didn't arrive in time. I agree Council tax has nothing to do with the electoral register. You moved abroad to work in September last year for a one year contract. So in effect you are living abroad. .

IS the vote being sent to an address in the UK or another country?
My DH only received his postal vote yesterday and he-s in England.
The paperwork has to be returned by close of voting on election day. It can be hand delivered to the Council offices by 5pm on election day.