Red Eric

Which doesn't contradict what I've said in any way although it does raise the question as to how this "continual updating" is achieved.

Here is what Wikipedia has to say on the matter :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electo...United_Kingdom

So it appears that you can be added to the register on an ad hoc basis during some months but that there's an annual exercise to keep the records of who is resident at each address current ie (presumably) you won't be removed from the register, if applicable, until that exercise has been completed each year. That would give a maximum of almost 1 year extra overseas voting rights.

That, in turn, raises other questions about why mfesharne is able to continue voting despite his claim to not being resident in the UK for 20 or more years. As he has already ruled out making false declarations, I can only assume that either he wasn't removed from the register in any of the years immediately following his cessation of residence in the UK due to some lapse on the part of his electoral registration office or that his memory is playing tricks on him about when he was last UK resident. Can anybody come up with any other plausible explanations?

mfesharne

I absolutely agree & one thing I find particularly worrying about this GE is that it's liable to end up with the Govt having no effective opposition & that's never a good thing because they can just steamroller anything & everything through without effective debate which is especially worrying where issues such as pensions etc are concerned.

As for Brexit itself, as I see it, the electorate have voted & the majority decision decided so the fact of it happening isn't going to change.

mfesharne

Eric,

Just to correct you slightly.

I haven't said 20 years or more....... I said close to 20 years (about 18.5 - 19 or so to be more precise) & out of the country more than I was in it for 20+ years before that. - (But I was a registered resident at that time.)

And FWIW, prior to the Brexit referendum, I consulted my electoral officer on 4 separate occasions where each contact consisted of several emails back & forth & each time she told me the '15 year rule' referred to from the last time I voted (or was registered to vote)

I also queried the issue with the electoral commission & the main political parties some of whom replied, some didn't but none contradicted my electoral officer.

The reason I was so persistent in my querying the situation was because I didn't expect to be allowed to vote (and thought that was quite reasonable) but she insisted I was entitled to a vote........ so I did.

Also, within an hour of May making her announcement about the forthcoming vote, my voter registration form arrived in my inbox. - Which I found equally surprising!

Red Eric

Indeed - voted in the UK or were registered to vote in the UK.

A condition of being registered to vote in the UK is that you are resident there. If not, you apply for an overseas vote. As the register is updated annually, it would appear to me that you cannot legally remain on the register for any more than a maximim of 11 months and a bit following your departure if you are leaving the country to reside abroad.

Your electoral registration officer etc were simply confirming your eligibility for an overseas vote on the grounds that you have been on the electoral register within the last 15 years. Whether you should have been and why you were if not is another matter, of course - but one that doesn't appear to have bothered them.

mfesharne

Neither....... I was registered as living overseas and voting by postal ballot & she confirmed on several occasions that the 15 year rule applied to when I last voted not when I was last resident in the UK & voted.

As I've previously said, I was expecting her to tell me I couldn't vote & thought that perfectly reasonable but she was absolutely adamant that I was entitled to vote so I did.

I do note the current Govt have promised to do away with the current 15 year rule completely which is probably a good thing.......... IF (note the big IF) they actually do it. lol!

ADDED

It's just occurred to me that the question she repeatedly asked me was 'when did I last vote by any method?' - Which of course was the GE preceding the Brexit referendum.

Also I did on one occasion (can't remember which one) have my brother vote for me as nominated voter (if that's the right term) but have no idea if that would have affected anything?

Red Eric

We're going round in circles a bit here. If the 15 year rule applied to when you last voted by any method, that would mean that registering as an overseas voter would, in itself, give you a further 15 years' voting rights and so on, in perpetuity, provided you voted at least once every 15 years.

That, very clearly, is not the case.

To get an overseas vote, you have to have been on the electoral register within those 15 years (although I fully accept the possibility that you may actually have left the country a little before that).

Naaling

No they haven't! That won't happen until June.

You obviously don't (or don't want to) understand how things work!

Last years referendum is now irrelevant.
The fate of brexit now rests on the vote in the coming election. If, when parliament reforms, a majority of members support Brexit then TM can proceed (if she really wants to!). If they don't then Brexit is dead in the water.

mfesharne

As I've said, I didn't expect to be allowed to vote in either the referendum or this coming GE but am glad I can......... and perhaps there's something more to the rule than we know but the point I was originally trying to make is that people shouldn't simply assume they can't vote because that's what the media quote but rather check with their electoral officer just in case they can.

mfesharne

Neither side will agree on what can/can't happen & argument on that issue is utterly pointless so the best thing we can do is sit back & await events.

My own guess is Brexit will happen but very possibly not to schedule.

Time will tell.

EMR

But whose version of Brexit ?

carvoeiro

An amusing point about may and ' da will of da peeple'
may a passionate Europhile - giving pro EU speeches just a couple of weeks before the Referendum ironically stood for election in Maidenhead
After the Referendumb - which had and still has no legal basis to cause anything to happen - she was one of the first to say 'we must respect - da will of da peeple'
Maidenhead - you would expect May to have the utmost respect for the people of - as they elected her - voted overwhelmingly in favour of Remain
Funny really
What would be really funny would be if they voted her out at the Election she said wouldnt be happening anytime soon

Naaling

The only thing I agrree with is that whether Brexit proceeds or not is now in doubt.

The makeup of the Parliament after the election will determine that, and that answer will come very quickly. No one will have to agree on anything. It will be a clear yes or no, based on the numbers.

Brexit will either proceed as scheduled, or it won't happen at all.

Naaling

It has happened before. About a decade ago, in Australia, John Howard, the long stanting PM at the time, not only lost the election to Kevin Rudd, but his own seat as well. He didn't have resign as leader, because he wasn't even in Parliament!

When TM listed the forces opposed to Brexit, that have appearntly caused this election, she failed to mention the most important one. Dissention in her own ranks!

Is she really going to try to force all Tory candidates to tow the Brexit line??

mfesharne

I have no doubt Brexit will happen but do have doubts it'll happen 2 years from when A50 was invoked & I think it'll be a much longer time before much will change in any significant way for most of the electorate because the Great Repeal Bill has taken all the EU laws into UK law that will then be debated & changed as necessary & that'll take at least a decade & probably considerably longer.

Naaling

In the light of recent political events, only an idiot would have "no doubts" about the outcome of an election!