What to do if your election postal vote has not arrived | Politics | News

With the General Election just around the corner, party activists up and down the land are knocking on doors trying to win votes.

However, if you’re not able to vote in person on July 4 and applied for a postal vote (before the deadline), you can cast your ballot without needing to go to the polling station.

The deadline to apply for a postal vote was 5pm on June 19 and voters’ completed ballots must be returned by 10pm on polling day to be counted. But some voters have yet to receive their packs.

The Electoral Commission said it was “not uncommon for all postal ballots to not have arrived at this point” and Royal Mail said it could confirm “all votes that enter our network are being delivered”, but what happens if your postal vote still hasn’t arrived?

Express.co.uk has broken down exactly what you need to do to make sure you can vote.

According to the Electoral Commission: “Where a voter claims either to have lost or not to have received their postal ballot paper, postal voting statement, or envelopes ‘A’ and/or ‘B’, it is possible for a replacement postal ballot pack to be issued from four working days before polling day up until 5pm on polling day.”

If you make this request too close to polling day, however, you will be required to collect it yourself.

The Commission procedure goes on: “The voter must apply in person and the replacement pack may only be issued by hand if the request for a replacement postal ballot pack is made between 5pm on the day before polling day and 5pm on polling day itself.”

In the event that your postal voting delivery is incomplete, you must return the incomplete delivery.

“If not all parts of the postal ballot pack have been lost or not received, the voter must return those documents that they do have.”

According to the Electoral Commission, your postal voting pack should have:

• Instructions about how to cast your vote and how to return the postal vote
  a postal voting statement
• Envelope A for your completed ballot paper
• Return envelope B
• The ballot paper or papers for the elections taking place

Your completed ballot paper can be sent back in any of the following ways:

• Post it using the prepaid envelope
• Deliver it to your local town hall
• Deliver it to a polling station

All postal ballot packs must be received by 10pm on polling day to be included, so if you’re posting it do make sure you’ve left enough time.

If you have applied for a postal vote but now want to vote in person, unfortunately you’re not able to do so. You can, however, turn up at your local polling station with your completed ballot paper and hand your vote in there rather then putting it in the post.