To complain DD has been denied a vote in Cambridge?

[Novote]

NC'd to avoid outing.
DD is at uni in Cambridge- she is on the electoral roll in Cambridge (not here at home) and applied for a postal vote before the deadline as she is now back home for the holidays.
No postal ballot arrived. She phone Cambridge council who said it was not actioned and they can't find the e-mail.
She has shown me the e-mail (with scanned form attachment) - it was indeed sent before the deadline and must have arrived as it was in the 'sent' folder and she did not receive a 'delivery failure' e-mail.

Cambridge City Council has been having intermittent e-mail problems (according to their website). The guy in the elections team basically did an apologetic shrug on the phone.

Is there anything DD can do to still vote? We are over 200 miles from Cambridge.
This would be her first general election and she (and I) feel angry that she did everything properly and is being denied her vote.

Unforunately OP the form needed, www.electoralcommission.org.uk/sites/default/files/2019-09/Emergency-employment-proxy-vote-application-form.pdf is very clear with regard to recognised circumstances and this isn't one of them.

I do think voter ID would be a good idea, it does seem crazy that they don't ask for any proof of ID or address.

Millions of people don't have any ID (approx 7% of the population), and it affect specific groups (women are less likely to have driving licenses than men, and black people less likely than white people, for example). So requiring ID to vote would literally disenfranchise people, and would hit some sub-groups of the population more than others. IMO this would be seriously unfair, unless the government committed to giving ID to everyone for free.

Equally, proof of address isn't that straight forward either. I only have my driving licence as all bills are paperless (so those without driving licenses may have none). Poll cards creates a massive responsibility on local councils to ensure they are correctly delivered - mine hasn't been, despite being on the electoral roll and receiving one for the local elections earlier in the year.

For reference, there were less than 400 reported incidents of electoral fraud at the last election. Disenfranchising the 3.5 million people without ID seems like an excessive response to that.

A PP has already made those points and I have already responded.

"Millions of people don't have any ID (approx 7% of the population)"
I assume this statistic relates to photo ID?
I clarified in my follow-up post that I did not mean photo ID.
I have advised people struggling to open bank accounts because they don't have ID. There is a long list of documents that can be accepted if you don't have photo ID.

(But as i said in my previous post which you may not have read, I absolutely agree that low turnout is a bigger problem than electoral fraud.)

Just in case you do decide to hike to Cambridge and just in case her postal vote application has been processed, my postal vote states that I will not be allowed to vote in person - only by postal vote.

How do the people at the polling station know that the person who turns up to vote is the person on the list?

DS1 isn't going to make to back to vote and didn't sort a postal or proxy vote and I jokingly said I'd send his brother in as an unofficial proxy. I won't, but realistically how would they know?

"How do the people at the polling station know that the person who turns up to vote is the person on the list?"
They don't.

"realistically how would they know?"
They wouldn't.

It's electoral fraud but I can see why you would do it in this kind of scenario.

How do the people at the polling station know that the person who turns up to vote is the person on the list?

They don't, but it's a low risk of fraud and they'd have to be pretty sure that the person hadn't already voted in person.

If it was done on a large enough scale to make any difference it would have to involve a conspiracy of lots of people and it would be detected.

Abusing the system with proxy and postal votes is easier.

I didn't think they could possibly tell - it's ridiculously easy to commit election fraud!

As DSs both look very similar, DS2 could easily manage it. An unofficial proxy. As it happens, our constituency is historically about 54% conservative with Labour coming in at 34% so it's not worth it anyway.

I wonder that, @Doesnt!

I'm really taken aback at how easy electoral fraud must be. I assumed the process would be a lot more watertight. I cannot think of any way that any potential fraudulent students could get caught for voting in two constituencies.

I'd only they had both sorted out their postal/proxy vote when I sent them the links when the election was announced 🙄

Make a complaint to the relevant authority, yes.

For her to vote now could be awkward. If they have recieved her postal vote application she'll be required to have a postal ballot in order to vote, even if she takes it to a polling station. I would advise she goes to the Electoral Registration Office in Cambridge and they can resolve the issue. But that's assuming she's even able to travel to Cambridge.

"How do the people at the polling station know that the person who turns up to vote is the person on the list?"

They don't unless and until the real voter arrives, but the polling station staff will quite possibly notice if the same person repeatedly turns up claiming to be different people casting votes!

Stealing one vote is easy. Stealing enough to have a decent chance of swinging a seat is not.

Can she ascertain whether is she is actually registered as a postal voter? If she's not, then if she were minded she can travel to vote tomorrow. If she is, then without the postal vote she can't vote.

Make the local political parties and candidates aware of this. They will be hopping and can bring it up with the returning officer. Can she really not get to Cambridge to vote tomorrow?

Also, in my constituency, the noose is tightening on a pretty much guaranteed Tory seat 47 vs 45. So in that case, every vote counts. If she's going to vote for someone who hasn't a chance anyway, then I'd leave it.

If her postal vote has arrived in Cambridge she can complete it and return it to what would have been her polling station. They are set up to receive them and will take it with the ballot box etc to the count. Presiding Officer in previous election and has happened twice.

tiggertogger - you sound somewhat partisan, mentioning only electoral fraud amongst student populations apparently encouraged by Momentum... Do you have any genuine evidence that the electoral fraud problem this country has is so significantly coming from left wing students that no other electoral fraud is worth mentioning by comparison? Or that student electoral fraud issues are greater than student voter disenfranchisement as a result of seriously flawed electoral administration?

OP update- DD is not to be allowed an emergency proxy vote as she does not fit the criteria so the only way she would be able to vote would be a 450+ mile round trip tomorrow via public transport.
Not a great introduction to democracy.

The emergency proxy vote criteria should include cock ups like this one by Cambridge city council. The criteria include a sudden change in work commitments, yet admin errors by the authorities don't count.

Is she going to?

I'd kick up a massive stink about this. It's ridiculous.

Also, in my constituency, the noose is tightening on a pretty much guaranteed Tory seat 47 vs 45.

Baffled at how anyone could claim to know this. Polls are utter bullshit as has been proven time and time again.

Not a great introduction to democracy.

Well, hopefully it's taught her that she needs to take responsibility for her vote, and that if she doesn't get her postal vote in good time, to chase that up much sooner. The day before the election, there's virtually nothing anyone can do about it.

That's a shame, OP. If she can jump on a train to go and vote tomorrow, that would be great but I appreciate that this might not be feasible.

Obviously, it will be very frustrating for her if she is unable to vote, but perhaps this is a good lesson for her with regard to sorting things out well in advance and not leaving stuff to chance. Hopefully, it won't make any difference to the outcome on this occasion anyway!

but students can be registered both at home and at university - mine is and has received a poll card for both locations

What is to stop them voting twice?