grumpyray

My wife and I are registered to vote in the UK general election and have a confirmation letter from the electoral services officer where we used to live. We requested postal votes which is what we received for the last general election and the referendum. So far we have not received our postal vote ballot papers and I am getting a little concerned as I have friends who live in the UK who have received theirs from other councils. Having reread the last letter we received although it stated we had requested postal votes it also said later in the letter:' An application form to vote by post or proxy is available online from' and then a link. I have been unable to get through by phone to the electoral services office or receive a reply to my email. Does anyone know if I have to print out, sign and return the postal vote application form by 23 May as I don't remember having to do that before? Before anyone says I am aware we are eligible to vote for 15 yrs after leaving the UK and have been in Ireland 10 yrs. Thanks
Ray

mikelincs

I would request the postal votes again, AFAIK the request only lasts for one election and should be renewed before the next one.

scrubbedexpat142

We were told that the ballot papers would not be sent out until 18th May.

Rosemary

In my letter it says 11th May. Really curious why we are being told differently unless it depends on the actual place that you are registered in.

Rosemary

scrubbedexpat142

Rosemary, I think you maybe right, seems like it varies across constituencies. Our (very helpful) Electoral Services Officer emailed us expressing concern that we may not be able to get our votes back in on time.

grumpyray

I have finally got through to our electoral services office who have confirmed we don't have to do anything more and our postal voting papers will be sent out in due course. She did admit that due to reliance on the postal service they should have been sending them out earlier.

BEVS

I'm finding it a bit hopeless from down here in New Zealand. Post can take 10 days to arrive.

quiltman

you're lucky Bevs! Here, although UK mail can get to Manila in 5/6 days, it can take weeks to travel the last 300miles - if it arrives at all! My last letter from HMRC, dated February 20th, got here in middle of April! we have this problem all the time with pension "are you alive" letters. They used to give you 8 weeks to respond but here we either got them after the return date, or with literally a couple of days to go. After many complaints, International Pensions now give us, certainly in the Philippines, 16 weeks to respond.

mfesharne

I'm in Portugal & I've been registered for postal voting for years & even questioned my right to vote with my electoral officer prior to the referendum & within a few hours of Mrs May announcing the GE, I had an email from my electoral officer with 'voter confirmation form' which I duly completed & returned.

Within a couple of weeks I had a card arrive stating "We will send your postal vote around Tuesday 23rd May" etc

grumpyray

With regards to whether my wife and I feel we as non- UK residents should have the moral right to vote. I have no problem with voting as we both pay tax to the UK inland revenue on our public sector pensions which we by law cannot transfer abroad. I would prefer if we could transfer the pensions as I suspect we would pay less tax here. Our pensions are our only income and have lost a lost since the EU referendum vote. I will be annoyed when in 5 yrs we lose that right to vote. At least we can vote which is more than Irish citizens living abroad can do. Although there is going to be a referendum on that (in which they won't be able to vote)

HKG3

If you fear your postal vote may not arrive in time, why not ask for an overseas proxy vote instead of a postal one?

https://www.yourvotematters.co.uk/__...ation-form.pdf

https://www.yourvotematters.co.uk/can-i-vote/overseas

scrubbedexpat142

It should be possible for British expats to vote at their nearest Embassy or Consulate.

mikelincs

How would you vote for a candidate in your constituency in that case, they would have to have a form with all the candidates from the 630 constituencies, and you would have to search for the one you wanted.

mfesharne

further to my previous comment (above) my ballot papers arrived today (19/5/17) and was completed & returned within a few hours.

I'm astounded by the efficiency.

grumpyray

Our papers arrived yesterday and we returned them the same day