Should certain dates be unacceptable for a General Election?

I seem to remember that there was quite a hiatus after the 2016 about the failure of postal votes to arrive on time. My daughter and a number of her friends registered but never received their voting forms. The postal service in our area, the south west, is worse than I ever remember - post arrives late or never and items are damaged. A postal voting option requires a sound postal system.

It looks as if it will be 12th December

Altering polling stations would be counter-productive. However well publicised, mpteen voters will turn up at the familiar place and then not bother to trudge off somewhere else. Just think of the numbers who after weeks of leaflets and
door knocks say 'Oh, I didn't realise it was Today'.

No one should be denied a vote. I don’t care when the election is to be honest. Students can vote in either of their places of abode. If they’re too lazy to bother, they can get a postal vote. If they can’t be bothered to do that either, then they aren’t bothered about voting. I don’t buy the arguments about older people either, they can go out in the daylight to vote. Or get a postal vote.

westendgirl

The election could be held in a different venue. They’re talking about other suitable places, or in smaller villages, joining two together.

Yes most definitely the 7th, 8th and 9th December (in fact all that week. ~Those are the dates in of our annual panto held in the Church Hall, which is usually used for elections.Oh yes it is !!!

Also as I understand it (a niece at Bristol uni) term finishes on Friday 13 (an omen?) surely if students are registered in uni city they can vote that week before returning home or failing that get a postal vote.

After all the hoo-ha about missing out on the referendum vote because they were all at music festivals, surely they had the nous to register for postal voting? If not, they actually don’t deserve a vote, IMO.

No dates should be off limit.....and students are not being denied a vote ( though how many be will arsed to go and actually vote is another matter.) Yes, they could arrange a postal vote if they want to, anyway.

No one should vote. They should all be shown complete disdain.

maddyone it's quite simple most students choose to register in the place thay are studying because that's where they are most of the year. The two dates proposed by Boris- October first and now Dec 12th coincide with the beginning and end of termswhen students are on the move. Now one date might be accidental but both looks like a plan!

I don’t understand why some people, I presume the OP means students, I don’t understand why they are being denied a vote. Students are allowed to register to vote in their home town and their university town. They can choose to vote in either, but not both (except in local elections where they can vote in both) and it seems far more likely, given what was said to have happened in the referendum, that by using a postal vote, students may very well vote twice. It’s illegal, but as no one checks, and voter identification is extremely lax, it’s highly likely that some will choose to do just that.

My student children have always registered themselves, starting back in 1993. They were registered both at home and at uni, as you are legally allowed to do. (Obvs you must only vote at one of them.) Surely if you're clever enough to be at uni you can manage a small thing such as that, or to arrange a postal vote?

SueDonimperhaps you could look at the dates and you might find that most GE were in term times. I don't know how old your student children are but it wasn't until the change in 2015 that students had to register themselves.

I've just applied for a postal vote as my son will be away and I have no other way of getting out to vote. It's a simple form and open to all, so I've asked to do it until further notice but you can ask for between specific dates and no reason is needed. So anyone can do it.

The only people denying youngsters a vote is themselves. It's easier than it's ever been to register and all of my student children have managed to vote in elections despite leading peripatetic lives. It's hardly rocket science.

I don't blame you TerriBull. Wish I could be too. ?

Yes one of them is definitely unacceptable, to me at any rate, it's my birthday I'll be out of the country anyway, I hope!

Maybe the people involved with the 'we're leaving on the 31st' campaign could be moved to the department that issues postal votes to save any backlog. And hey, how about full page adverts in all the papers [oh, and over motorways] informing people about how to obtain a postal vote or give students information about how to obtain a vote. And before everyone says they should know that sort of stuff, did we all know things like that when we were their age? I certainly didn't...

I applied for a postal vote for the 2016 GE - it arrived here in France too late to be returned to the UK

You can apply to have postal votes at any time - don't leave it to just before an election.
Once you have elected to have a postal vote that is what you will receive for every future election, local, national or otherwise.

And to answer the question, yes certain dates should be off limits.

So we're going to have our 3rd GE in 4 years because we may have changed our minds about who we want to govern, but a 2nd referendum would be so wrong as nobody has changed their mind? Such sound logic!

I suspect if every student applied for a postal vote (and aren't these supposed to be the exception) there would be a longer wait than 5 days GG13. We are talking about thousands of young people.
If you can show that all older people go on holiday on the same date Pantglas2 that might be a valid argument, but they don't.

Good point Jane10!

Re SNP I expect they'd like it before the Salmond trial? Whatever the outcome dirty linen will be washed in public. Its a difficult situation.