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?

Why should a council have to reimburse postage costs? It's your choice to live overseas.

And I'll say it again; if the timescales were advertised as part of the registration bumph, I would have opted for a proxy vote.

Not sure that many people know a) the cut off for candidates to stand or withdraw or b) the late date postal ballots would be sent out by unless you're part of the process. (unless as an overseas voter I just wasn't aware of that)

The info sent didn't mention any of this, and if it did, I would have chosen differently. It also read to me from the info I got, that if you used a proxy, it needed to be in the borough you were voting in AND there was no mention of proxies being able to use a postal vote, both of which were the reason I didn't nominate a proxy

Turns out this isn't the case; I clearly didn't read it correctly, but this seems to have been a similar interpretation of the info that many other postal voters have made

I don't see how they can make someone have a close family member as their proxy - what if you don't have any? Or any that live near enough to your constituency? Or you have falllen out with them?

Then you don't get to vote - unless it's by post

These are the proxy rules:

"Voting as proxy
A person can only be a proxy for close relatives and up to two other people at an election or referendum.
Close relatives are the spouse, civil partner, parent, grandparent, brother, sister, child or grandchild of the applicant.
The person you wish to appoint as your proxy can only act as proxy if they are 18 or over and they are (or will be) registered individually."

Your proxy doesn't need to be a close family member, just someone who is registered to vote.

So misssmilla1 what it's saying is you can act as a proxy for as many close family members as you like, and two people who aren't close family members. I've had candidates act as proxies for voters they aren't related to, even that is acceptable.

And I agree, I wish the Electoral Commission would give people more detailed information. They just dumb down and give the bare basic information, hence why I used to spend my time emailing folk in Dubai and New Zealand checking if they really want a postal and not a proxy.

misssmilla - Turns out, after complaining on 3 separate occasions and not getting a straight answer, that the postal ballots don't get issued til the 24th April and that's across the UK

That can't be right as I recieved mine on 21st April. I'm abroad but EU.

Its - I don't have time to arrange one now. If I'd known sooner that Richmond were going to be so crap, I'd have organised a proxy long ago. The fact I was led to believe they could send papers overseas and on time meant I didn't consider this until it was too late.

Kahlo - well done for spectacularly missing the point. Of course it's my choice to live here. It's also my democratic right to vote in the upcoming election. I have followed my council's directions re registering to vote by post as an overseas elector to the letter. They have failed to send out ballot papers with enough time for them to be returned and counted. If the ballot paper turns up in the next couple of days, I may just about be able to turn it around if I courier it back. Everyday postage won't be quick enough. Why should I be out of pocket due to their incompetence? Expat friends with other local councils sending out their papers have had them on time. I suspect this is why I was advised to contact the ombudsman as the electoral commission have read the emails I have been sent by Richmond and there are glaring errors and inaccuracies within what they have told me.

That can't be right as I recieved mine on 21st April

I think different regions send the papers out at slightly different times. But it will always be pretty tight for an overseas postal vote.

Kahlo The deadline to apply for or cancel a postal vote was then 21st April, and the Electoral Services' printers will have been busting a gut after the 5pm deadline to get the packs out. The problem is the timescales are tight, and enshrined in law. I'll say it again, if you're an overseas elector, next time get a proxy, as ItsAllGoingToBeFine said, they can even be a postal proxy if need be

Well, if they'd bust a gut a bit harder, my vote would have been here by now.

I have no-one from the approved list to act for me as a proxy. Except for DH, and he is overseas.

Scholes 34 But you do have a vote. I assume you can't qualify for two votes being resident and overseas at the same time, so the problem really just boils down to the fact that you opted for a postal vote rather than to use a proxy for your overseas vote. No?

I would never have opted to vote as an overseas voter if I had not been kicked off the Electoral Roll 5 weeks before the General Election. Your right to vote should not be rendered difficult or prejudiced in this manner - it is completely unconstitutional.

Please tell me that it isn't the individual local authorities that are responsible for sending out postal votes? If that's the case, I doubt I'll get one this year. My local authority are so incompetent and disorganised, they haven't even sent me a Council Tax bill for the new Financial Year yet - I had to phone them up and get the amount to pay over the phone, then contact them again to ask them to send out an actual bill.

myhandsarekillingme Don't know if its the case everywhere but within my constituency there are 2 issues of postal votes around a week apart.
The first is for everyone who has had a postal vote for a while and the second for those who recently registered- I think recent is just within the last few months.
So I got my postal vote around the 21st but the next batch weren't even being issued until the 28th.
Overseas voters should be made aware of how late the second batch go out because it generally doesn't give them enough time to receive and return.

That's what I thought. Clearly I have been prejudiced. If I had been kicked off the Electoral Roll a bit earlier, I would have made damned sure I had sorted out my registration, whether that be as an overseas elector or whatever, much sooner. As it was, I did everything within the timescale caused by the ERO's decision to remove me, and I still have no vote to post.

I don't care if I have to pay for an express courier, but at this rate I'll be lucky if it doesn't turn until after the General Election.

DH, incidentally, also in Belgium with me, is voting with a normal postal vote delivered to his former home address but forwarded via the Post Office (like all his mail). Despite the fact that he sold his house a few months ago, he wasn't kicked off the Electoral Roll (I have a small house of my own which I kept on marriage).

To add, during the correspondence I've had with my local council, I've suggested alternatives eg sending papers to a BFPO address at the embassy here (absolutely not what BFPO is for but it is abused so regularly anyway, a ballot paper wouldn't make much difference). Richmond know full well I won't have time to send my paper back before the deadline. Using a BFPO address (the same speed as Royal Mail) could have helped to counter this. Except they have refused. There is literally nothing more I could have done to ensure being able to vote from overseas (aside from the proxy option, but I didn't think this would be necessary at the outset). The whole system is a joke and I hope the parliamentary ombudsman takes my complaints seriously.

TheChandler your proxy does not have to be from an "approved list"; it can be anyone registered to vote in the UK. Mine is no relation to me.

Every UK registered voter can be a proxy for two people to whom they bear no relation plus additional people if they are close family as per the definition. That's where you are getting confused about an approved list.

Well, unfortunately its too late now. If the Government is offering people postal votes and also kicking them off the Electoral Roll 5 weeks before the General Election, they should make sure that voters are able to exercise their democratic rights. Whether that means providing more information or getting their postal votes sent out earlier or their Electoral Roll sorted out sooner.

I don't know in what world of idiots they came up with the idea of doing a widescale alteration of the Electoral Roll at this late stage. Any fool could have prepared a report on the possible things that might go wrong and hence avoided them.

I don't really want the hassle of arranging a proxy to be honest. Since I only had tenants in my own property for a six months and knew that I would have to pay Council there, not least because I didn't know how long this job would last, I didn't envisage that I would be kicked off the Electoral Roll.

tarka

According to the electoral services officer in Southwark, London (where I'm registered) the official response is:

"According to Electoral Commission Guidelines a postal ballot can only be sent out between 1 and 2 weeks before polling day. This means the earliest date we would legally be able to begin dispatching postal votes is on 23rd April"

Allegedly Southwark sent theirs on the 24th, I am waiting with unbaited breath

Well, if they'd bust a gut a bit harder, my vote would have been here by now. DH has done 12 hour days last week and this. Come 7 May, he'll work 24 hours round the clock. He's cancelled plans this coming Saturday for the third weeked in a row. However, I do accept he could have worked Sundays too.

Scholes - it's not about your DH on a personal level. What most people on this thread are saying is that the system, such as it is, is not fit for purpose. It's not like people didn't know that the election was coming up. My local council could certainly have prepared better, and, in addition, actually given out accurate information. Your DH's employer's bad planning has led to a need for overtime - which I imagine he's being paid for? Frustrating as this may be for you, him and his colleagues, it's not half as frustrating as being denied the right to vote due to a piss poor council failing.

Scholes34 I didn't wish to burden your DH at all, as I didn't really want to be an overseas postal voter at all. I simply felt deterred at re-registering at my property in the UK by the unhelpful tone of the ERO who seemed far more interested in removing me from the Electoral Roll, rather than helping me to register to vote.

The ERO in my case (as well as getting both my name and address badly wrong in written correspondence), after the fact, has now responded to say "I should also add, that if asked, I will always advise overseas electors to make arrangements to appoint a UK-based proxy rather than voting by post."

Well what a shame I didn't ask the precise correct question. Silly me, not thinking that someone who kicked me off the Electoral Roll would be helpful if asked. Silly me, just trying to re-register as quickly as possible.

"Please tell me that it isn't the individual local authorities that are responsible for sending out postal votes?"

It is the local authority, sorry. Unless it's organised differently in Scotland, but quick google shows info is all on local government pages.

You might like to look this thread too: [[http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/living_overseas/a2351410-UK-ex-pats-intending-to-vote-by-post-for-May-7th-elections?msgid=54081748#54081748{]

How might the Council have been better organised? It all comes down to the tight deadlines over which they have no control.

Let's try that again with the right brackets:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/living_overseas/a2351410-UK-ex-pats-intending-to-vote-by-post-for-May-7th-elections?msgid=54081748#54081748