Postal Voting

[lady_p_gold]

I am cross. I am very bad at opening mail and bothering with things and now I find that I was sent a postal ballot paper and if I didn't want it I had to write and say I didn't by a certain date. I never asked for a postal vote and I have never had one before, and when I read through it it said that you had to have it verified by someone else, more work especially if you live alone ... so the end result is I have not voted when I would have done. How does this skew the figures I wonder. Who started this postal vote lark and why.

[Lonnie]

This Goverment brought it in, thee's been a bit of a stink about it, just for the reason you cite,

In my opinion, and this is just my opinion, its another sleazy trick by this goverment to massage the figures.

[THECORBYLOON]

If you go here you can see a list of councils running pilot voting schemes for the Local Elections and details of each pilot. Not all require confirmation of ID to allow a postal vote. The idea is to encourage more folk to vote but in your case it didn't work......

[Hammer Head]

You say that you are very bad at opening mail. Allow me to explain. The arrival of the mail is indicated by the clanking of the letter box and the sudden appearance of a number of envelopes at the foot of the door. The envelopes should then be picked up (many people have trained their dog to perform this task) and sorted between the different recipients in the house. To open the envelope, hold the envelope in one hand and with the index finger of the other hand, or a suitable proprietary letter opener, rip through the top of the envelope. This will then allow you to access the letter within which in most cases will be totally useless, but just may contain useful information such as instructions for your postal ballot.

[THECORBYLOON]

HammerHead Find the highest cliff edge on Beachy Head and walk backwards for 100 yards. Then, run toward the same point for 103 yards......

[Toureman]

Whilst holding hands with THECORBYLOON!

[Hammer Head]

Nice one Toureman

[Hammer Head]

THECORBYLOON - Have you recently had a chuckle by-pass?

[Pajama Girl]

Hey Lady: You must look at your mail for important stuff. That is just life. Sorry that you did not vote because voting is important stuff. No one can "fix" it for you because YOU did not look at your mail. You may be cross but you should be cross at yourself. No one else did it to you but you.

Even the stuff about being "verified by someone else, more work especially if you live alone."

Think about those women in Afganistan who prepared themselves for death before they were to vote for the very first time. They prepared themselves for death because they might be killed by fundementalists since it was such a sacriledge for a woman to vote in an Islamic country. How nice it could have been for them that they could have voted by mail even with the added difficulty of someone else to verify their vote.

Shake it off and vow to do better the next time. I hate junk mail but every once in a while theree really is something important in the mail.

[THECORBYLOON]

HammerHead if you can't take it, don't dish it out.

[sp1814]

"its another sleazy trick by this goverment to massage the figures"

To what end? What figures would the government be trying to massage?

I don't geddit.

[Oneeyedvic]

sp - have a search for postal votes and birmingham council - you will find plenty of sleaze.

[Whickerman]

Hammerhead's right though... VG Answer there!

Frankly, if you can't be bothered to open your mail, don't bitch about the fact that there was info in there you might have found useful.

Also, was there anything stopping you voting in the usual way? Maybe I'm wrong - hands up if I am - but it sounds like you were given an extra chance, and a help towards your goal of voting. If you didn't use it, surely no-one is stopping you voting at a polling station?

[Lonnie]

sp1814, let me try to explain, as lady said, she never registered for postal voting, so there should really be no reason to check her mail for this reason,

Postal voting is being experimented with, in predominately Labour strongholds, and if you check, more and more stories are coming out, of people not being able to vote, for exactly the same reason that lady has cited.

Postal voting is wide open to fraud, postal delays, and as such, shouldn't be even tried.

[jake-the-peg]

If postal voting was a government conspiracy why would it be trialled in Labour strongholds?

Surely they'd have nothing to gain and everything to loose!

Be that as it may postal votes don't seem to have been a roaring success, I cant see them surviving at least in the current form for very much longer.

[sp1814]

Lonnie - thanks...but perhaps this may be because I've got my 'Friday Stupid Head' on...but why would a Labour government introduce postal voting in Labour strongholds? If there's a chance that people like Lady P, may forget to post the stuff back - surely that would hurt the party, not help it?

[jake-the-peg]

Here's the electoral commission's feedback web page

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/your-say/

Why not tell them?

[Dom Tuk]

Hey teh government is onto a good thing here. How about tomorrow sending letters to all in the country saying that ' your pensions/savings/liberties will be used by the government for future wars and your council taxes/income taxes/VAT will go up.....if you dont reply by 6.00pm tonite then it will happen so those who want to opt out reply now...tough if you are on holiday. Hammerhead...it may happen you know...

[loobie]

It's a good job i'm not bad at opening mail and not bothering with things, my non direct debit bills would not get paid!!!! .

I had a nice giggle at Hammerheads explanation. Quality answer!!

[lady_p_gold]

Well I was just being honest, and I can't believe there aren't some of you out there who don't leave the mail, maybe I didn't explain fully that I saw the envelope and thought it was my voting card and it was not until the night of the election that I opened it. I was not expecting some of the tone of replies ... however ... if people wish to reply like that then long live free speech. My comment about 'more work if you live alone' was merely to point out that it might prevent some people who do not know anyone to sign their paper, from voting, I do not have the problem myself. Anyway thanks for the cut and thrust of debate.

[bernardo]

You have contradicted yourself.

(1) You say that you received a postal vote, but that you never asked for one. You must have asked for one at some point, otherwise they wouldn't have sent one to you.

(2) You wrote "I have not voted when i would have done" but then you wrote "it was not until the night of the election that I opened it". If you intended to go and vote, you would have been told at the polling station that you had been sent a postal vote. The fact that you didn't notice the postal vote until the night of the elction day meant that you didn't go and try to vote at all.