Angry expats hit by postal votes fiasco
THOUSANDS of Britons who live abroad lost their chance to vote because of a new glitch in the electoral registration system, it appeared last night.
Complaints poured in from expats around the world who said they had registered to vote in good time but their postal ballots had failed to arrive in time or at all.
The election watchdog, the Electoral Commission, announced an inquiry into the fiasco, which follows months of controversy over registration reforms that saw a million people drop off the voting rolls.
Any loss of expat votes is most likely to hit the Conservatives hardest because those who have moved abroad are overwhelmingly retired – and pensioners are more likely to vote Tory than any other age group.
A recent YouGov poll found the Conservatives were ahead by ten points among the over-60s. The loss of expat votes may also have a crucial effect in constituencies won and lost by the narrowest margins.
Disappointed voters from around the world were using social media to protest about the chaos yesterday.
Warwick University graduate Kathryn Harrop, living in Switzerland, did not receive her promised postal ballot paper. She was then denied the chance to use a proxy voter in her Selby and Ainsty constituency. The 22year-old translator tweeted: ‘Definitely voting via proxy next time – postal vote never arrived, not allowed to vote via emergency proxy.’
Opera singer Tom Elwin, based in Stuttgart, also said he had been deprived of the vote. He tweeted: ‘ Postal vote didn’t arrive – then missed the deadline for proxy as a result of waiting for postal. Not impressed.’
Rob Clarke, in Varese, Italy, did receive his postal vote, but on the morning of polling day. The late arrival means it was impossible to get the completed ballot paper back for counting by the 10pm close of polls deadline.
Hundreds of defence personnel are also believed to have lost their votes. Ministry of Defence sales assistant Michelle Graham said: ‘I think it is appalling the postal vote wasn’t sent to us with adequate time to send it back. I wanted to vote and I have the right to vote but I didn’t get the chance.’
The months before the election saw efforts by the Electoral Commission and the Tory Party to persuade more expats to register. British citizens living abroad have a right to vote in General Elections in their old home constituency – via a postal vote – if they have been registered in Britain in the last 15 years.
Young people who have never previously voted can do so from abroad if their parents were registered in the past 15 years. However until last year only around 20,000 of around five million expats were registered to vote. Numbers began to rise last year as registration campaigns began and may have passed the 100,000 mark in advance of the April 20 deadline to register.
The full scale of the failure to provide postal ballots to expats in good time is likely to take weeks to become clear. Local councils are responsible for making sure the postal votes are sent out in time.
A spokesman for the Electoral Commission said: ‘We are aware there are some expatriates who have not received their ballot papers. We will be considering the matter in our report on the election.’
Comment – Page 16
‘I think it’s appalling’