To be shocked #deniedmyvote

[DizzyPigeon]

I haven't been denied my vote, but I'm shocked to hear that EU citizens in the UK have been denied a vote despite being registered and previously voting, because of a form the should have been sent, but never received.

OK, ianbu.

But it could be seen as a deliberate attempt to reduce the remainder vote in the elections which the Conservative Party (or at least the leader of the tories) wanted to avoid taking place.

My (British) friend who is currently living in Australia registered for a postal vote and it arrived yesterday. Not sure how she was going to get it back to the UK today!

Channel 4 wants to hear from anyone affected.

Sounds like the Guardian is already setting up the excuses and narrative for it's likely losing political masters... They have already turned on the Change UK bunch by the look of things. I thought Chuka Umunna would be one of their darlings !

Fact is they are so out of touch with ordinary people outside of London that like all the mainstream media, they have no idea how little they really know.

LIEbour and the CONservatives will be getting their collective butts kicked, and thoroughly deserved it is too. Let's have PR and eliminate the two party system all together.

Emergency proxy votes, for anyone who didn't get their ballot on time due to council incompetence. I don't know if the electoral commission will allow it but they bloody well ought to.

I didn't get my voting card. As long as you show up with ID, it's fine.

People have been saying for weeks on social media this was liable and likely to happen because they botched organising the entire election as they didn't want to hold it.

I'm totally unsurprised.

Disgusted, is a better word than shocked.

It just shows how badly the entire process of dealing with leaving the EU has been handled.

Incidentally, most of the blame lies at council level as they are the ones responsible for handling voter registration and administration. Given that services have been stripped to the bone by cuts, its not a huge surprise that some have struggled to get stuff done properly and on time when the government held off giving the green light for the election until past the eleventh hour. It also explains why some councils have handled it better than others.

You'd expect problems to be worst in some council areas than others.

It will be interesting to see who has failed most.

As long as you show up with ID
ID is being trialled in a few constituencies.

In most of the country you need no ID.

YANBU and i am not surprised.

MilkGoatie
Dh and I are newly dual. I had no idea we couldn’t vote in both. It never occurred to us tbh. We have both voted. But only once now. Thanks for the heads up... not that this scenario will ever happen again unfortunately.

To add. Dh and I lived abroad in other eu countries for almost a decade. We always were allowed to vote.

It's not a qyestion of having your voting card or not. Many people who live in the UK and have been for years, have registered to vote the correct way and within the time frame, have received their voting card, turned up at the voting stations and were turned away. Its not a question of IDs, or having the poling card or not. They are also people who voted in the last EU elections without a problem and have gone through all the correct channels to vote (filling in forms etc) and were still turned away.

It's outrageous in my opinion. Fucking Banana republic it's embarrassing.

My husband and I are really angry about this too! We live in another EU country and completed all the necessary registration documents for postal voting... Mine turned up late yesterday afternoon (so totally impossible to get it back in time) and my husband has received nothing. I think it's absolutely scandalous that so many people have been denied their voting right.

My council is so incompetent. I only received my postal vote yesterday afternoon, the post round here gets collected 9am in the morning so it'd have missed the deadline if I posted it. I called the electoral department who said I could drop it in at my polling station - if I was able to do this I wouldn't have requested a postal vote! I wonder how many other people didn't receive their postal votes in time?

Contact the Electoral Commission, British in Europe and EU TheHoundsofLove

In defence of the Councils though, this Election wasn't supposed to happen. It is a massive, complicated, time consuming and stressful job to run an election and even harder with little notice and reduced funds to do so. Mistakes can and do happen.

I'm sure leavers will also be saying it's a deliberate attempt to reduce the number of leave votes.

How when it mostly affects not British EU citizens living in the UK?

Tbf, they’re pretty good at taking your council tax on time

Not so quick to give you back an overpayment...

*This happened to me this time around. I have a proxy vote because I live abroad and my consituency failed to tell me I needed to submit a new form this time. I found out when I contacted them about something related to this and was told the deadline to post this form in was the next day. Impossible.

I'm fucking furious, I only have a couple more years in which to vote in the UK and I feel robbed of this opportunity*

@Damntheman - are you sure you were given the correct information? As I understand it British nationals resident in another EU country are NOT allowed to vote in the UK in the European elections. Nor are they allowed to vote in local elections. This is because they can vote in these elections in their EU country of residence.

The right to vote (for 15 years after you were last registered in UK) is limited to national elections and also included the EU referendum.

...“actually ignore that I am wrong

woman19 Thanks - I'm going to do that this evening!

I think you’re clutching at straws with the Conservative theory as we have a LibDem council and they’ve royally fucked up with EU voters.
Farage being smug tonight is going to be unbearable as an aside

I think foreign nationals should not be allowed to vote in any country other than their own. Just because they happen to be residing in a different at the time of the election, doesn't mean they should be able to vote there. I lived abroad for 4 years (USA and mainland Europe) and I never expected to be able to vote there. It wasn't my business how they ran their country, I was just a temporary guest there.

EU citizens voting in an EU citizens election.

For the hard of hearing

EU CITIZENS VOTING IN AN EU CITIZENS ELECTION.

Worth complaining, asking, insisting if you have been denied your lawful vote. Still. Polls open till 10?

@lisaocarroll
Most extraordinary development #deniedmyvote
German couple in my story just been told the can, after all vote. Tower Hamlets checked the CCTV footage after my call for day they said they submitted their paperwork and found the mistake was theirs.

As a foreign national I think you seriously need help if you think we shouldn't vote. I am the same as you mate. Same. I've been in this country for 24 years - my own country paid for my education and all the tough bits, and I worked here in the UK legally from about week 2 or arriving. Working my way up to salaries of over 40k a year. Paying my taxes, being part of the community, raising money for charities, volunteering my time. This is my country, legally, and in my heart even if you think we're worth less than you. I will vote at every single opportunity.

Tax = voting rights.

No voting rights = no tax revenues