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Wednesday, 14 May 2008 |
I was interested to read Brian Cave’s article
on the lack of expatriate votes from abroad.
My husband and I split our time between
Scotland and France. A few years ago, we
anticipated being in France at the time of the
local elections and arranged for postal votes.
As it happened, I had to go back to the UK
and left France the day before the election, at
which point our postal voting papers had not
yet arrived.
When I reached our UK home, I
discovered that the voting documents had
arrived there. The following day (the day of
the election) my husband, still in France,
advised me that the postal voting papers had
still not arrived. With my documents in hand,
I hot-footed it along to the local polling
station to be told that I was unable to vote in
person since I had a postal vote. I spoke to
the local electoral registration officer who
told me that the officers at the polling station
were following the rules and that if one has
requested a postal vote then one could not
vote in person.
I discovered that the law prevents
Electoral Registration Office from issuing the
postal voting papers before a certain date.
This certainly does not leave enough time for
postage abroad and the return of the vote in
time for polling day. Despite explaining the
situation and pointing out that there was no
way I could vote twice, in the end I was
deprived of voting once! Clearly something
needs to change.
I found that the simplest way to get round
this issue is to appoint someone you trust as
proxy who can then vote on your behalf.
Proxy forms can be obtained from the local
electoral registration officer.
Fiona Macadie, Midi-Pyrénées
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