Postal Votes
- 4 May 2010 09:3350284Can anyone tell me how long you have to register a postal vote, ie from the time you get it to the time it must be sent in.
A strong source tells me a huge of armed forces have not received theirs, thats hardly fair is it.
grass grows by the inches but dies by the feet. - 4 May 2010 09:4250288Ian, don't you know? They are expected fight and die, not muck about with all this voting malarcky. Having been underfunded and ill-equipped to fight any war, the Government doesn't expect to get any votes from the armed forces, so, to solve a problem, no postal voting forms. Simples! (if slightly warped)
- 4 May 2010 10:0250291The papers are sent out eleven days before an election, Which means if you are in a forward operating base in Afghanistan the chances are your ballot papers will arrive after the poll is closed. My daughter who as many know is in the royal navy was at sea for the last two general elections and was thus denied a vote. This year she deploys the day after the election. The U.S armed forces get 40 days to vote and the the German armed forces get 6 weeks. Britain the home of democracy i think not.
beer the food of the gods - 4 May 2010 10:5450310Could they not all register for a proxy vote? According to the DDC website, this can remain open indefinitely for future elections as well. For anybody whose work can be expected to see them out of the UK this would seem to be the ideal option. If so, I am surprised that members of the armed forces are not encouraged to register for proxy voting when they join up.
http://www.dover.gov.uk/council__democracy/elections/voting_by_proxy.aspx
As someone who was deepsea in the Merchant Navy for over twenty years, I must have missed out on voting several times for the same reason. There was certainly no option for postal voting, it would have delayed the election results for up to several months waiting for merchant ships to get into ports around the world with any sort of postal service and then awaiting the returns.
I recall that when I spent a year on Israeli ships, they tried to do exactly that. Even with their small merchant fleet, it delayed the results of the election by many weeks and I think it was the only time they tried it.
For units of H.M. armed forces such as warships, air bases, barracks, etc, I would have thought it would be easy to register each one as a polling station, appoint an officer to count the votes, and email the results over the Satcom. This would probably also cover most of those engaged in active operations as there is several weeks notice of an election.
Information for members of the armed forces to vote by proxy here:
http://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/register_to_vote/armed_forces.aspx - 4 May 2010 10:5950314As far as I know, forces have special rules applied to them so that their votes are included, but can't remember the details
- 4 May 2010 12:3450334When my son was in the Navy I had his proxy vote, not good for the conspiracy theories I know but he was serving his Country and had his vote.
- 4 May 2010 12:3650336I have previously highlighted problems for the Armed Forces as a result of some rule changes introduced by this curretn Goverment. This is indeed a problem particularly for those on the front line who may miss a chance to vote all-together. Terrible situation.
- 4 May 2010 13:0350339Puzzled why this should be. Can you clarify? You seem to be saying that the current government has made rule changes to deny forces in the front line having a proxy vote.
- 4 May 2010 13:3250340There are two aspects to this Ed.
First, its changes to Forces registration process that, according to top brass, leaves many forces personel unregistered. I forget the details but from memory it about a change to annual re-registration and the practical implications of it.
The other problem is one of timescales by which by the time postal votes get out to the front-line in Afghanistan, to the soldiers in forward bases and then back to Blighty, the deadline could be missed.
Not long ago British procedures were being compared to the arrangements for US Forces and they came out poorly by comparison. - 4 May 2010 15:0650351How strange. If that is the case, why cannot individuals just apply for their own proxy vote like any of the other countless Britons working or living abroad?
Postal votes seem irrelevant in this day and age for the reasons I gave in #4. Why would anybody in their right mind be sending postal votes to the front line in Afghanistan? They might have been relevant in the First Anglo-Afghan War in 1839 but this is 2010 and a world of instant global communications.