British expats say postal vote delays have disenfranchised them

Election staff at Bury town hall open and process the postal votes for the marginal Bury North constituency. Counting will take place after the polls close at 10pm. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Some Britons living abroad have complained that postal votes arrived too late for them to vote in the UK election.

Paul Farrington-Douglas, who is based in the Czech Republic, initially tried to register in mid-March but only received his ballot on 4 May. He said his relatives in Spain had also been left without a vote.

“I understand of course that voting from overseas entails complications. No one can be blamed for the inefficiencies of international post. But an estimated 4.6 million UK citizens live abroad so it is non-trivial for such inefficiencies to essentially disenfranchise so many potential voters,” he wrote in an email.

Brian Cave, who runs a blog focusing on expat voting rights, told the libertarian website Breitbart there were cases of this happening not only in mainland Europe but in Brazil and the United States.

“There is prima facie evidence accumulating that large numbers of citizens abroad have not received any ballot papers for the election,” he said. “The electoral registration officers in various constituencies have not sent out the papers in time so that they can be returned in good time before May 7.”

So sorry can't vote. So many expat registered voters have not received voting forms. Three in my family. Go labour!!!!

— Aileen Holmes (@AileenHol) May 5, 2015

My postal vote never arrived in time @MHDCcomms this makes me sad and a bit pissed off #expat in #dubai #WasSentToUKAddress #ELECTION2015

— Suzanne J S (@chickenruby) May 7, 2015

Appalled - postal votes not arriving in time for ex-pats! I have no faith in postal votes - went for a proxy #GE2015 http://t.co/NdwhFa98Pg

— Philly Waygood (@GirlinMountains) May 7, 2015

Following a publicity campaign by the Electoral Commission, 113,742 people applied to vote either by post or by proxy. As with any postal votes in the UK, all forms must arrive before 10pm on polling day in order to count.

An Electoral Commission spokeswoman said: “We are aware that some overseas voters have raised concerns that they have not received their postal ballot packs and we will look carefully at the evidence shared with us on this when we consider what issues to raise in our statutory election report, which will be laid in the UK parliament in the summer.”