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Local Government Elections, Postal Votes

(51 Posts)
GrannyGear Sun 02-May-21 18:09:34

The coming local government elections - for County Councils seem to have been forgotten. We've had no publicity from candidates telling us why we should vote for them, nothing on the web, nothing by snailmail, not even a leaflet through the letter box. Is it like this everywhere?
Do you have a postal vote? I do and find it useful. I wouldn't want to vote any other way. But the instructions seem excessively complicated. Peel off the grey label and stick it on to one enevelope, then peel off the purple label and get it exactly in place in the other envelope. Why not just send the envelopes ready labelled? I wonder if the idea is to weed out not only those who can't see very clearly, but also those lacking in dexterity or the colour-blind. It's only too easy to get one bit of the procedure wrong and perhaps lose the chance for your vote to be counted. Anyone else found this?

M0nica Sun 02-May-21 18:51:01

We have a very active Lib Dem candidate who has been canvassing door to door and has sent out leaflets, one of which included details of the Lib Dem candidate for the role of Police Commissioner. We received our polling cards about a month ago. We have not heard from any of the other candidates.

We do not have a postal vote. We live a coiple of hundred yards from the pollong station, so we will walk there and back to cast our votes

Galaxy Sun 02-May-21 19:00:17

We have had a number of leaflets from Tory and labour, and the Tories are currently door knocking. Quite a lot of publicity on social media.

Tizliz Mon 03-May-21 10:09:40

Voted by post this time (Scotland). It is great. Spread everything out and looked each candidate up on the web, discussed with OH. There are two pages of ‘list’ candidates, so took some time. Made my decision at leisure

Parsley3 Mon 03-May-21 10:17:33

I have a postal vote for the Scottish election but the paperwork is straightforward. Have the postal vote instructions changed this year for the County Council elections?

MaizieD Mon 03-May-21 10:33:34

I'm in a Red Wall constituency; we've had election literature from all the contestants. The tories even, very kindly, offered to return my postal vote to the right quarters for me. [Hmm]

I will go and vote in person, as I always do. Then I'll know that it has the optimum chance of being counted. Postal votes have been known to go missing...!

varian Mon 03-May-21 14:21:29

The only vote we have is for the Police Commissioner and the only candidate we have heard from is the Liberal Democrat.

silverlining48 Mon 03-May-21 14:26:46

We have had no information about any of the 3 candidates fir the council and the police commissioner job. I had to google them but didn’t learn much.
We have a postal vote so chose the red and the orange but know that blue will win. Again! So much for my vote counting but that’s a different thread.

lemongrove Mon 03-May-21 14:30:54

We never get door canvassers here, but have had Conservative and Lib Dem info pushed through the letterbox.
You can find out all about who is up for election in your area by googling.

eazybee Mon 03-May-21 14:32:42

We do not have local government elections this year but we do have an election for the Police Commissioner.
One party's information was delivered before the postal votes arrived; (I know because I delivered it), and a leaflet arrived yesterday from another party.
As always, perhaps the people who complain about not receiving any information would like to volunteer to help their chosen party by delivering a few leaflets.

Pittcity Mon 03-May-21 14:49:42

We've sent off our postal votes which were very straightforward. No peeling and sticking just envelope A and envelope B. Vote in one and that in the other with signed declaration. Simples!

We've had plenty of bumf from all parties on local and County elections, but nothing about Police and Crime Commissioner, so we voted on party lines not on the individual.

Callistemon Mon 03-May-21 14:55:47

No County Council elections here but I think a fair few trees must have been felled judging by the amount of literature coming through the letterbox for Senedd candidates. Three or four lots from some of them.
No door to door canvassing.

They have been recycled smile
(The leaflets, not the candidates.)

GrannyGear Mon 03-May-21 15:49:50

I actually wondered if the elections had been cancelled or postponed - Covid and all that, plus difficulties getting people in and out of polling stations while keeping them two metres apart and even getting the staff to man the polling stations.
It must be a tedious and boring job with none of the kudos of vounteering at one of the vaccination centres.
From what Gransnetters have said it seems some areas are better served than others. Be interesting to see what the voter turnout is like.

Callistemon Mon 03-May-21 15:53:26

Be interesting to see what the voter turnout is like.

Weather forecast is for a cold and wet day.

Low turnout?

Jaxjacky Mon 03-May-21 16:27:01

We’ve had numerous leaflets and active posts on Facebook, I’ll vote in person, it’s not faraway.

Cindersdad Mon 03-May-21 17:59:32

Already returned my postal vote. Too early perhaps as I sent it back before all the candidate leaflets had come.

Polarbear2 Mon 03-May-21 18:29:45

No stickers here for postal votes. Just two envelopes. I’d have thought it was the same across the Uk? Clearly not. Only literature we’ve had is from Lib Dem’s. Labour doing lots of social media stuff. Cons don’t bother round here. Never been elected for last 20 years. (Hooray). ?

Alegrias1 Mon 03-May-21 18:37:39

We just had some literature through the door from one of the candidates. We got a free pencil for use on Thursday smile

EllanVannin Mon 03-May-21 18:55:08

I probably won't bother----again.

Oldbat1 Mon 03-May-21 19:07:41

We’ve made use of the postal voting this time. Very straightforward. Only one candidate has leafleted and even came to the door himself so he has received one of our two votes. Hope he does well.

Ashcombe Mon 03-May-21 19:12:26

I’ve also received two envelopes but no sticky labels for my postal vote which is just for the police commissioner here in Torbay, Devon.

H1954 Mon 03-May-21 19:13:52

We've used postal voting for some years, so much easier and safer than going to the Polling Stations.
There has been some candidate PR stuff through the door but during the period between Prince Philip dying and the actual funeral this was all put on hold, quite rightly so too.

Callistemon Mon 03-May-21 19:19:00

I used to enjoy going to the polling station and have worked as a poll clerk a few times when I was much younger - there is a great atmosphere at the counts.

However, we have a postal vote now because we were so often away.

EllanVannin Mon 03-May-21 19:39:34

In my area there isn't only the local votes but the added votes of a new police chief and a Lord Mayor for Liverpool !

How can anyone possibly vote for people they know nothing about ? We in Wirral shouldn't have anything to do with voting for a Liverpool mayor.

Urmstongran Mon 03-May-21 20:00:43

Well FB and Twitter users in Scotland beware.

Iran ‘almost certainly’ meddling in Scottish election to destabilise the UK.

“Tehran regime pumping fake news on to Twitter and Facebook in order to boost SNP and encourage break-up of Britain, warns think tank.”

Just now in the Telegraph.