Postal voters urged to make their vote count

Issued on behalf of the Returning Officer

As postal packs start to be dispatched for The Highland Council Election, postal voters are being reminded to read the instructions carefully when completing their pack to ensure their vote counts.

The postal pack will contain:

• Envelope A / Postal Voting Statement
• Ballot paper
• Return envelope (Envelope B)
• A guide to completing your postal vote

When voting by post, voters need to fill in a form, the postal voting statement, which accompanies the ballot paper, whereby your signature and date of birth must be provided. As a security measure, these are matched against the signature and date of birth the voter provided when they applied to vote by post. It is important that this signature conforms to the signature that you gave at the time of your postal application.

Councillors will be elected using the single transferable voting system whereby electors will be asked to mark their ballot paper by ranking as many or as little candidates on the ballot in preferential order 1,2,3,4, and so on.

To assist voters the Council has made a short video clip explaining how to correctly complete and return your postal ballot.  Answers to FAQs are also available on the Council's website to provide helpful information.

The deadline to apply for a postal vote is 5pm today (Tuesday 19 April) and all packs will be dispatched in time for voters to complete and return before polls close at 10pm on Thursday 5 May. Any registered postal voters who have not received their postal ballot pack by Monday 25 April, should phone the Highland election helpline on 01349 886647.

The Highland Council’s Chief Executive Donna Manson, the Returning Officer for Highland, said: “Postal voting is growing in popularity as a convenient way for voters to have their say but at every election, some postal votes are invalid, because the voter either forgets to sign the postal voting statement or writes down the date on which they filled it in, rather than their date of birth.

“I would urge postal voters to take the time to read the guidance enclosed in the postal pack, complete the Postal Vote statement with the correct information and vote using the single transferable voting system so your voting preferences count.”

Anyone who has requested a postal vote will not be able to vote in person at a polling station. However, they will be able to hand their complete postal pack into any polling station within Highland between 7am and 10pm on Thursday 5 May if they are unable to post it in time.

To find out who is standing in which council ward and for full details visit  https://www.highland.gov.uk/voter