UK

Lib Dems Abroad Survey shows difficulties getting UK overseas vote back in time

Published

9 months ago

June 26, 2024

By George Cunningham, Chair, Lib Dems Abroad Steering Committee.

On 21st June, EU reporter published news about the start of “an investigation into how British expats’ votes can miss (the) UK election” by New Europeans UK and Unlock Democracy who have teamed up with the British Overseas Voters Forum to assess how the postal system will perform for Britons abroad voting in the UK General Election on 4 July.

The voter registration deadline was 18th June. Some UK local councils started to send out postal ballots before the registration process was completed while others delayed mailing theirs out until the voter registration deadline had passed.

That means the ballot must take no more than 15-20 days (depending on the local council mailing date) to travel from the UK and back to make the count on time on 4th July. Otherwise the vote is wasted.

Lib Dems Abroad conducted a small-scale experiment just before the general election was called to assess how risky it might be to rely on ballots being returned in time using international overseas postal services. The purpose was to show how much safer it was to vote via a UK-based proxy.

A letter was posted to their members at 13 postal addresses across the world, asking for the letter to be posted back to the originating London address within 48 hours.

The outcome was clear-cut.

	Days to arrive overseas	Days taken to return letter from overseas	Total postal days	Likelihood to make the 4^th July UK count in time?
Germany	5 days	5 days	10 days	Possible
France	6 days	7 days	13 days	Possibly Risky
Canada	5 days	8 days	13 days	Possibly Risky
Spain	9 days	8 days	17 days	Too Risky
Malaysia	9 days	12 days	21 days	Too Late
United States	9 days	Not yet received	Over 3 weeks	Too Late
New Zealand	10 days	Not yet received	Over 3 weeks	Too Late
Australia	11 days	Not yet received	Over 3 weeks	Too Late
Singapore	11 days	Not yet received	Over 3 weeks	Too Late
Hong Kong	17 days	Not yet received	Over 3 weeks	Too Late
Dubai	17 days	Not yet received	Over 3 weeks	Too Late
Indonesia	Missing	N/A		Too Late
South Africa	Missing	N/A		Too Late

Lib Dems Abroad have made a big issue of how important it was for overseas voters to use a UK-based proxy to vote throughout the general election campaign. Better that, than desperately sending ballots back by courier as has been the case in the past. The deadline for nominating a proxy has however now passed (19th June).

We look forward to getting the results back from the New Europeans UK, Unlock Democracy and British Overseas Voters Forum survey.

The Lib Dems want to keep strengthening our country’s democracy. The Lib Dems are the only party calling for the establishment of overseas constituencies so that Brits abroad can have a real voice in the UK parliament.

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