DO YOU VOTE IN THE UK ?
 

Extract from British Embassy website

Looks like 1 in 30 of us votes in UK elections

Should we care what happens in the Uk now we have left ?



Approximately 678,000 British expatriates live in the United States but very few are registered to vote in the UK. According to Head of Campaigns and Public Information at the Electoral Commission, Nina Ziaullah, overseas voters are severely underrepresented on the UK Electoral Register.

She said: "There are fewer than 20,000 British expatriates on the electoral register, a tiny fraction of the estimated six million Britons living abroad. Part of the problem is that many overseas voters simply don't know that they are eligible to vote. Many people also wait until an election is called before they register. However, if a snap election is called, there may not be much time to get registered which is why it is important to do so now

Re: DO YOU VOTE IN THE UK ?
 

About 1 in 15 given about half expats are ineligible having lived abroad for more than 15 years. Still a pitifully small number though. I voted in every general election until I lost my eligibility.

Re: DO YOU VOTE IN THE UK ?
 

Think I know why it doesnt work -

It says the forms will be mailed out 4 days before the election from the uk and has to be back before polling closes !

It takes 4 days to get a letter from milwaukee to central washington state so I reckon it would take at least 2 weeks from UK - me - return

Governments ! Why cant they issue a username and pin number and let people vote by email

For that reason it recommends a proxy voter be authorised

Last time I was in the UK, I asked my daughter if she knew who the prime minister was and she didn't know - so that isnt going to work

Re: DO YOU VOTE IN THE UK ?
 

Snap!

Re: DO YOU VOTE IN THE UK ?
 

I didn't know that we lost eligibility. That sucks.

Re: DO YOU VOTE IN THE UK ?
 

She's better off not knowing - at least until next spring. :D

Re: DO YOU VOTE IN THE UK ?
 

Anyone got any experience of this business about them mailing out the forms 4 days before the election with the requirement that they be back on election day ?

I dont see how anyone living further away than Calais can have their vote counted

Re: DO YOU VOTE IN THE UK ?
 

I used a proxy for this precise reason. The problem is that, unlike a US election campaign, a British election campaign is short and sweet, meaning there are significant time constraints on getting these ballots out.

Re: DO YOU VOTE IN THE UK ?
 

yes it looks like it's proxy or nothing

as soon as it gets dark and snowy, i will send a letter to Gordon and alert him to the situation - if I can convince him that 90% of expats would vote for him, he might change the system

he will never know - my mum used to get a car from the labour party and then voted cons when she arrived

my dad did the opposite

perhaps we need a pair up agency where we both agree not to vote

Re: DO YOU VOTE IN THE UK ?
 

That's way we have never bothered to register. Got all the forms to do so but when we saw that it was a complete waste of time. Doubt we would even get the ballot before the polls closed.

I would have asked my son to be my proxy, but as he is a police officer voting for the BNP even as a proxy might cause him problems. :omg_smile:

Re: DO YOU VOTE IN THE UK ?
 

The BNP, seriously??:ohmy:

Re: DO YOU VOTE IN THE UK ?
 

Banque National de Paris

Re: DO YOU VOTE IN THE UK ?
 

You could get him to go in wearing a burqa then nobody would know

No regulations say you have to show your face

one of these should do it :

http://www.samizdata.net/blog/~pdeh/lil-kim-burqa.jpg

..

Re: DO YOU VOTE IN THE UK ?
 

I don't pay taxes there anymore so I don't see why I should have a say in how they spend their money so I don't vote. That and I think they're all as crooked as each other.

Re: DO YOU VOTE IN THE UK ?
 

I was last registered in Bradford north where the labour vote is 110% of the voters

A lost vote for either party will make no difference but I would vote as a nostalgia trip.

I lived in the posh bit near the sewage works and without that area of Bradistan, the labour vote would have been 111%

http://dilnawazinqalabi.blogspot.com/

.