The Electoral Commission in the UK believes the number of expat votes in the May general election was lowered due to insufficient postage being supplied as well as the late receipt of papers.
In a report, published today, the Electoral Commission said that the Returning Officers (ROs) must include sufficient pre-paid postage on return envelopes for voters abroad to return completed ballot papers.
But here’s the rub. The report also says “They are not, however, required or funded to provide the additional postage necessary to enable packs to be returned to the UK from other countries.”
“The UK return postage is normally printed onto the return envelopes, and it appears that in some cases it was also included on return envelopes in postal ballot packs sent to overseas addresses. This led to confusion for some overseas voters who may have mistakenly assumed that the pre-paid postage on the envelope would be sufficient for them to return their postal ballot pack to the UK," it said.
This might have been a problem for some expat voters who actually received the paper work. At least 400 people complained to the Electoral Commission that they did not even receive a ballot, or received it too late, despite having been registered.
The report outlined the dates for sending ballots to postal voters. Before 2013, ROs were not allowed to send ballots until the 11th working day before the election. This would make for a very tight turn-around time for overseas mail.
The timetable for UK Parliamentary elections was extended, however, from 17 to 25 days which meant for the May vote ballots could be sent only from 9 April.
People who registered online to vote close to the deadline of 20 April were not likely to be sent a ballot pack in time to receive it and get it back before election day.
The report referred to the fact that some people perhaps did not understand that when registering online, the process requires two separate applications.
The Commission said: “These problems are likely to have affected overseas electors living in a range of countries, and not just those furthest away from the UK or where the postal system is less reliable.”
It recommended “that all ROs ensure that postal ballot packs for overseas electors have the correct postage so that they can be delivered to voters and returned as soon as possible, and that funding is made available to ROs to deliver this.”
It said that it will work with the UK government and ROs to develop measures, which could be included in the proposed Votes for Life Bill, to make it easier for overseas voters to cast their ballot in time to be counted.
The Bill, which was announced during the Queen’s Speech, will abolish to so-called '15 year rule' that stops expats from voting if they have been out of the UK more than 15 years. The Bill will also look at ways to make it easier for expats to vote in time.
This rule currently stops around one million of the estimated five million Britons living overseas from voting.
The Electoral Commission reported that there were nearly 106,000 overseas electors on the register in May 2015. In December 2010 that number was just 33,000.
