I registered online within the deadline on 21 April 2015 at apx 17h30.
It annoyed me that I was required to put my last UK address where I was last on a UK electoral roll ten years ago. As a result of ... not understanding at the time what the potential implications might be... I received three emails.. one was automated. The next was at 20h.. maybe automated:
Please find attached confirmation of your recent application to register as an overseas elector. If you have not already put in place an absent vote arrangement please read the following:
- If you are living overseas and you are therefore unable to attend at a polling station in the ******* area, you will need to put in place an absent vote arrangement. (If you have recently sent in a form for an arrangement and have had confirmation that this has been processed, please ignore this email)
- At this late stage, the absent vote arrangement is as follows:
o Vote by proxy – the deadline to submit an application form to vote by proxy is at 5pm on Tuesday, 28th April. Applications are available from the link below. The form must be printed so that it can be signed by hand, but can then be returned electronically by email. Your appointed proxy would need to be able to attend at your usual polling station for the address you are registered in connection within *******. Once appointed, you can advise them of how you wish to cast your vote and they will attend and be issued with your ballot papers on your behalf.
- Proxy application form: I have removed the link.
I replied that I knew no one in that area and therefore it seems that although I was within the application time-frame I cannot be allowed to vote!
Then at 21h30 I received another email which was from a person or automated:
Although you were within the deadline to register which was at midnight,
leaving your registration until the evening of the final day meant that
it would not be data-checked and processed by our team until the
following day. This is not a problem with regards to processing your
registration, as the original application was submitted before the
deadline and so could still be processed the following day after the
data-check, but as the postal vote deadline was at
5pm
today and you had asked for a form to be sent to you by post, there was
then no time for this to be done. Had your application been submitted
prior to the evening of the final day then we could have posted the
application form to you.
At this late stage, the
only available absent vote arrangement is a proxy arrangement. This is
where you appoint someone to go along to the polling station on your
behalf. It would need to be someone who could
attend at the polling station in ******* on your behalf, they do not
have to live in ******* themselves but they would need to be able to get
to the polling station here on 7th May. If you know of
anyone who would be willing to travel to *******
to cast your vote for you then they can be appointed by you using the
attached form. Were you to have applied earlier, you could have put in
place in a proxy arrangement for someone who lived further afield and
then they could have subsequently applied for
a ‘postal proxy’ arrangement where your ballot paper was sent to them
by post, but as the deadline for this was also today and as you had not
applied or put in place the proxy arrangement, there was no opportunity
for anything like this to be put in place.
I am very sorry that
the options are now so limited; unfortunately the election deadlines are
fixed in Law and once they pass we are unable to do anything other than
offer you the available alternatives.
I was pretty miffed!!! I found it too difficult to absorb whilst I was traveling and trying to read it all on the ipad presents me with challenges especially when I want to keep away from internet!
Since then I have spoken to the same person at the District Council on two occasions and even attempted to speak to someone at the Electoral Commission but it is my belief that he hung up on me when I said I wished to make a complaint. He said I had to complain to the Returning Officer at ******* but she had said I needed to complain to the Electoral Commission. He obviously did not like me saying that!!!
I am not quite sure of the facts or if I have the truth, but I read a headline in a newspaper for expats that said Ballot papers for UK expats in France have been delayed... .... ..... I must find out more!
hmmmm me thinks they don't want our votes...
The country is going to the dogs ... The people who wish to be chosen to run the Government of England seem to act like fighting cats and dogs... who wants to hear all that... and look at the expense wasted which could have gone to a charitable cause. (I know there is currently a French political story of hostility in the Headlines.) Why can't they just get on and listen to the people... and accommodate all peoples!!!!!!! Then negotiate for the average / common good? Some may say this is the purpose of voting... but it isn't fair according to seats or votes!!!
And another thing....
Why is there so much private tutoring existing at huge costs (with stupid people to pay such astronomical fees) and more Free schools planned with unqualified teachers when there wasn't much wrong with the educational system before the National Curriculum and that dread OFF word?
I have a BAD EXPERIENCE OF a FREE SCHOOL who said for two terms that my granddaughter had S.E.N. as she was unable to read!!! Her maths is even better than her reading ... aged 7! Then within one month of a new school her reading was assessed at above average. Ok we know that her writing and verbal expression is still below level but she is very creative. She is in a class of 30 plus with a huge range of abilities, cultures, some with disabilities but all being given attention, care and love. No stigma to class or culture there, as there was in the Free School with its untrue accusations about me and my daughter and grand child and other parents too... A NIGHTMARE! That complaint still is being thought about! I backed off at the time as my daughter was trying to get out of the school.
Back to the UK and Elections!
Why can't Health, Hygiene and Medical Treatment of injured and unwell people be done in an effective manner with everyone following Florence Nightingale!? I am aware it is more complex than this!
Why are there unacceptable waits for an ambulance - a family member with a broken pelvis waited overly long on a Bank Holiday?
Am I being too simplistic? Let's keep it simple.
Let's make VOTING fair for freedom, equality, humanity and the good of the common family of Hu-MAN beings... for sisterhood and brotherhood.
Why can't they start to work with each other instead of sniping all the time!
I have been saved from making a choice and I know which colour I was about to vote for even though it may not do much good!
BUT I am still like a dog with a bone... moaning that I have not been able to vote.
Why in the 21st century can we not be able to vote using the internet, smartphone or whatever?
My RANT is feeling better!!!
I don't expect anyone to answer my questions...I am of simple intelligence and do not understand politics, economics, social and global issues!
