Postal voters urged to make their vote count

A record number of Highland electors have applied to vote by post for the UK Parliamentary elections on Thursday 7 May.

A total 32,151 electors across the three Highland constituencies of Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross; Ross, Skye and Lochaber and Inverness, Nairn and Badenoch and Strathspey will be receiving their postal votes from tomorrow (Tuesday 21 April) onwards. This compares to 21,908 Highland applications for postal votes at the last General Election held in May 2010.

As the postal voting packs start dropping through letter boxes, postal voters are being reminded to read the instructions carefully when casting their vote otherwise their vote might not be counted.

When voting by post, voters need to fill in a form accompanying their ballot paper, giving their signature and date of birth. As a security measure, these are matched against the signature and date of birth the voter provided when they applied to vote by post.

Steve Barron, Returning Officer for the Highlands, 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 packs and provide the right information so that we can count their votes. We need to receive postal votes before polls close at 10pm on Thursday 7 May.”

Postal voters who do not receive their postal ballot pack by Tuesday 28 April should telephone the helpline on 01349 886657.

The breakdown of postal vote applications is as follows: -

• Caithness, Sutherland & Ross
  Postal voters – 8263
  Postal proxy voters - 8
  
• Ross, Skye and Lochaber
  Postal voters – 8974
  Postal proxy voters – 16
  
• Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
  Postal voters – 14865
  Postal proxy voters – 25