MsElui

Have you set up your postal vote yet? The general election MUST take place between now and June 3rd 2010 and most councils need 10 working days at least to sort the paperwork

The form can be downloaded here - after inputting your last UK postcode (to tell you which council you will need to send it to).

https://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/regist...r_to_vote.aspx

Its a simple form - includes pages/instructions for:
British citizen abroad registering for electoral registration for first time
Application for postal vote
Application for proxy vote

so i only needed to fill in the one page form on page 5 and send it off to the address on page 6 to set up a postal vote. It does warn you that postal votes may not reach you in time and a proxy vote might be better but thats your choice.

fatbrit

You're knocked off the roll after 15 years out.

avanutria

So if DH and I are already registered to vote in the UK and have voted there in the last couple of years, we don't need to fill out the "electoral registration form for a British Citizen living overseas", right? Just the postal or proxy application?

Bob

When I sorted all this out, they wanted the forms counter signed by a Grit and have passport numbers, all a pain in the arse...so when I was last back, I sorted a proxy postal vote for my mother to do my vote, because it was still registered for where I went to uni rather than at her house.

Proxy is the only way to make it count because the turn around time is way to close that you probably won't get your vote back in time to count other wise.

nettlebed

I don't plan to return to the UK for at least 15-20 years, if ever. Also, I have few, if any, ties - economic or family - to the UK, so I don't feel that it's ethical of me to cast a vote on the governance of a country in which I am not really a part any more.

If/when things change, and the government of the UK begins to impinge on my life in more important ways, I'll look at getting registered again.

Till then...

Bob

As an expat, you can only register for so many years...and if you have kids, the policies may well affect them, so it's worth a vote all the same.

Octang Frye

I was 22 when I moved here. Never voted in the UK.
Missed voting against Labour in '97.

So now I can't vote. That 15 year thing is anathema to me.
Once a citizen, always a citizen.

robin1234

I agree. I think that 15 yr rule is wrong.
What I like about US elections, not only can you vote, but you can buy elected reps too. I gave a relatively small amount of money in just two carefully chosen races; both my candidates won (Mark Begich & Al Franken.)

nettlebed

You obviously weren't very generous with Franken!

BTW, it nice to see that some of the jokers being elected to Congress are actually funny, now...

emailrob

thanks for the reminder

Octang Frye

bump tiss!

robin1234

Got to keep them honest...

MsElui

Im only doing it to give Gordon Brown a kick in the goolies

robin1234

I imagine if there is a hung parliament the Welsh and Scots will be knocking at parliament's door looking for even more concessions.

avanutria

As a followup for others - I sent in page 5 and got an email from my council saying they also needed pages 2 and 3, even though I've voted before in the UK.