CHANGES TO POSTAL VOTING – MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT
Postal votes will begin to hit doorsteps. Please read the press release below carefully and know what the changes in legislation means to how you vote by post in the upcoming general election.
Kim Buzzard | Senior Communications Officer
Rutland County Council, Catmose, Oakham, Rutland. LE15 6HP
T: 01572 758243 | M: 07875 166 970 | e: kbuzzard@rutland.gov.uk
www.rutland.gov.uk | www.discover-rutland.co.uk | www.activerutland.org.uk
PRESS RELEASE
Residents in the Rutland and Stamford constituency that have applied for a postal vote for the upcoming general election will be seeing their postal votes hit their doorsteps from Thursday 20th June.
Postal voters are being warned to read the information on their ballot papers carefully, following recent changes to national legislation to ensure their votes are valid.
The easiest way to return postal votes is through the mail. Please post via Royal Mail with enough time for your vote to reach us. Royal Mail have priority post boxes around the county which offer later collection times and a faster delivery to the destination. Details of these can be found on the Royal Mail website.
Any postal votes being returned by hand for the Rutland and Stamford Constituency must be delivered to Rutland County Council’s offices in Oakham, regardless of whether voters live in Rutland, Harborough or South Kesteven, unless they are returned to a polling station between 7.00am and 10.00pm on the day of the election (Thursday 4 July).
Please be aware that if you hand deliver postal votes to your polling station or Rutland County Council offices, due to legislation changes, there are now limits on how many postal votes you can deliver. You may now only hand in your own and those of up to 5 other electors per poll.
Also, if delivering postal votes by hand there will be a form that must be completed. If this form is not completed in full, more than the permitted number of postal votes are handed in, or you are a political campaigner not permitted to handle postal votes, your postal vote(s) will be rejected. It is therefore important anyone delivering to our Catmose office should do this via Customer Services to ensure that a form is completed correctly. Do not put any postal votes directly in the council office letterbox – any that are put through the council office letterbox will be invalid and therefore not counted as part of the election.
There are also some changes to proxy voting which means that you will be able to act as a proxy for no more than two people based in the UK, regardless of your relationship. If you are acting as proxy for people living overseas, you can act as proxy for up to four people but only two of these can be based in the UK.
Anyone acting as a proxy to vote on someone’s behalf will need to show their photo ID at the polling station. The deadline for proxy votes (not emergency or postal proxy votes) is 5pm on 24th April. For more information or to apply online for a proxy vote go to: www.gov.uk/apply-proxy-vote
Voters should also remember that they will need to bring photo ID to the polling station to be able to vote. A list of accepted forms of ID is available on the Electoral Commission’s website. Those that do not have eligible ID can apply for free voter ID before (5pm on 26 June.
