Page last updated at 09:46 GMT, Wednesday, April 4 2012
Voting in Elections
Currently the law allows you to vote in three ways. First, by
voting in person at your local polling station, secondly by
organising a postal vote so a ballot paper is sent to you before
polling day, or thirdly you can appoint a proxy, someone to vote
for you on your behalf.
Voting in person at a Polling
Station
A few weeks before an election, poll cards will be sent to every
one who is eligible to vote, even if you have arranged to vote by
post. This card provides information on where your polling station
is located and the hours that it will be open. A map showing your
polling station location is also printed on the card.
Postal Voting
Anybody can apply to vote by post as long as their details
have been entered onto the Electoral Register. You do not
need to give any reason for voting this way and can apply to vote
by post for all future elections, a fixed period i.e. 6 months or 1
year, or for one election if you were unable to vote in person on
that day. If however you were going to be away on holiday and
were thinking about a postal vote, please contact
Electoral Registration Office prior to applying to
find out the approximate posting dates of the ballot papers, as we
have to follow strict dates for posting, and cannot always
guarantee to deliver these to you if you are on holiday a few days
prior to the election. As part of the Electoral
Administrators Bill passed in 2006 anybody requiring a postal vote
has to provide their date of birth and a specimen signature.
This information is securely held and only used to check the
details against the Postal Voting Statement returned with your
ballot paper. This is to prevent fraudulent postal votes
being returned, your vote remains secret.
Once you have received your postal vote you can complete the
ballot paper and follow the instructions provided to send it back
to the Civic Offices. If however you decide you do not wish
to use the postal system, you can complete the ballot paper, place
it in the return envelope and deliver it to a polling station
within your electoral area, or to the Civic Offices before 10.00pm,
which is the close of poll.
Please note that if you choose to vote by post then you will not
be able to vote in person at a polling station.
Applications to vote by post must be received eleven working
days before an election.
To apply please download the:
Unfortunately at the present time the form cannot be completed
online as a signature is required. You will therefore need to
download the form and post it to the Civic Offices. However,
if you are able to scan the completed form, it can be returned to
the Elections Office as an email attachment to the address given
below.
Proxy Voting
Proxy voting means allowing someone else to vote for you, and
this facility is available for various reasons for example
travelling or living away from home, sickness, away on holiday, or
if you are a student.
However, you may find that you are able to vote on election day,
in this case you can still go to the polling station, but the
person you have appointed as your proxy will not then be able to
vote on your behalf.
To apply for an application form to vote by proxy, or if you
have any queries regarding the above, or would like more advice,
please contact the Electoral Registration Office on 023
8068 8110 / 8106 or e-mail elections@eastleigh.gov.uk
Your application will be acknowledged
and confirmation sent that your request to vote by post or by proxy
has been registered.
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