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Voting in the UK

Altfish

Altfish

Veteran Member
I read story after story in the US about voter suppression, about hour long plus queues to vote, about campaigns to get people to register to vote.

Thought I'd describe how it works in the UK, since we have a lot of local elections happening tomorrow.

I live in a suburban area, about 8-miles from the centre of Manchester. Yesterday on a small grass area about 200-metres from our home a portakabin arrived, today a portaloo and a generator. Tomorrow this will be a polling station. It will serve a fairly small area, my daughter lives about 3/4 mile away, they have a separate location to vote at, similarly with my Mum & Dad who also live about a mile away in a different direction. What I am trying to say in urban areas no one usually has to travel more than about 1/2 mile to vote.
In rural areas this will increase but even then 5 miles travel is exceptional.

I now have a postal vote (US equivalent is an absentee ballot) but prior to voting by post I never had to wait more than 5-minutes to vote, usually a lot less. The only time I have heard any problems was a general election and many people piled out of the pub around the time that the booths were closing, and there were some who could not vote.

Registration in the UK is so easy. Every year the council send out a letter with a pre-filled form with a list of people eligible to vote (according to their records) at your property. If there are no changes, you just sign the form and return in the pre-paid envelope. If there are any changes (ie one of your children is old enough to vote) you add them to the list. Alternatively, you can remove a sibling who has left home. In between these annual letters you can easily register on-line, say, if you've moved house.

It is not hard - can't believe the US doesn't have a similar system
 

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ChristineM

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
We use overseas postal voting. Register with the council offices closest to our home before we left. About 3 weeks before an election we receive the voting paper, pre filled. Tick the selection you want, seal it in the prepaid envelope and return it.

We can't vote in france but the system is even easier. Every town has its mairie (town hall/council offices). Every personal entitled to vote is automatically on the register. On voting day, walk in to the town hall, show your ID, it's checked against the register, get your voting slip, tick your selection, slip it in the box, job done.
 
RestlessSoul

RestlessSoul

Well-Known Member
Will stop off on my way home from work tomorrow, to vote in the London Mayoral election. Will probably take about 5 minutes.

My son, who no longer lives with me, is still on the electoral roll here so will come over to get his poll card. This is perfectly legal, and rightly so; when he has a settled home of his own, he'll register himself there, in the meantime we're legitmately preserving his right to vote.
 
sun rise

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
Sadly, the US specializes in making it hard to vote. It's not that easy almost if not everywhere, but in red states they are trying to suppress the vote in liberal areas to retain power at almost any cost.

In my area in California, by contrast, when we voted in person it took no time at all to sign in, get a ballot and vote - no waiting. The last time during the pandemic, I voted by mail again with no issues.

Next year when we vote again I expect voter suppression gangs to show up at primarily black polling stations to try to frighten voters. We might even descend into armed warfare between those trying to stop blacks from voting and those trying to ensure the black vote (or show up at white polling stations to return the voter suppression favor).
 
Altfish

Altfish

Veteran Member
RestlessSoul said:
Will stop off on my way home from work tomorrow, to vote in the London Mayoral election. Will probably take about 5 minutes.

My son, who no longer lives with me, is still on the electoral roll here so will come over to get his poll card. This is perfectly legal, and rightly so; when he has a settled home of his own, he'll register himself there, in the meantime we're legitmately preserving his right to vote.
Click to expand...
When I first went to University, our Halls of Residence automatically registered all students staying there.
However, I was never unregistered at home.

Anyway, I voted at college. It was about 10-years later that my younger brother admitted to me that he had pretended to be me and voted back home!
 
Terrywoodenpic

Terrywoodenpic

Oldest Heretic
Postal vote for the first time for me.
Easy, and the post box is just outside my gate.
So posted it, in my slippers.

I also come under Greater Manchester, so had a Mayoral vote and local councillor.
 
Shadow Wolf

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
Altfish said:
In rural areas this will increase but even then 5 miles travel is exceptional.
Click to expand...
The one election I skipped (Indiana had a very and terribly abysmal voter turnout this election), I would have had to have driven 20 miles one way to vote for candidates who would overwhelmingly lose. Granted, I was in a town in another county, but, they used to have a polling place only a few miles from where I lived (a very rural setting), which would have knocked the distance that day to abit over 10. But they closed it and moved it the county seat.
 
Shadow Wolf

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
sun rise said:
In my area in California, by contrast, when we voted in person it took no time at all to sign in, get a ballot and vote - no waiting. The last time during the pandemic, I voted by mail again with no issues.
Click to expand...
My first election here was within walking distance and painless. The last one was so nice I'm going to probably get mail ballots every election I can.
 
Evangelicalhumanist

Evangelicalhumanist

"Truth" isn't a thing...
Premium Member
Altfish said:
I read story after story in the US about voter suppression, about hour long plus queues to vote, about campaigns to get people to register to vote.

Thought I'd describe how it works in the UK, since we have a lot of local elections happening tomorrow.

I live in a suburban area, about 8-miles from the centre of Manchester. Yesterday on a small grass area about 200-metres from our home a portakabin arrived, today a portaloo and a generator. Tomorrow this will be a polling station. It will serve a fairly small area, my daughter lives about 3/4 mile away, they have a separate location to vote at, similarly with my Mum & Dad who also live about a mile away in a different direction. What I am trying to say in urban areas no one usually has to travel more than about 1/2 mile to vote.
In rural areas this will increase but even then 5 miles travel is exceptional.

I now have a postal vote (US equivalent is an absentee ballot) but prior to voting by post I never had to wait more than 5-minutes to vote, usually a lot less. The only time I have heard any problems was a general election and many people piled out of the pub around the time that the booths were closing, and there were some who could not vote.

Registration in the UK is so easy. Every year the council send out a letter with a pre-filled form with a list of people eligible to vote (according to their records) at your property. If there are no changes, you just sign the form and return in the pre-paid envelope. If there are any changes (ie one of your children is old enough to vote) you add them to the list. Alternatively, you can remove a sibling who has left home. In between these annual letters you can easily register on-line, say, if you've moved house.

It is not hard - can't believe the US doesn't have a similar system
Click to expand...
Very like Canada, actually. It's so easy, and for weeks in advance I can vote elsewhere, if I'm going to busy election day. Here, elections are run by Elections Canada, which reports -- not to the Government -- directly to the Parliament of Canada, through the Speaker of the House of Commons. This is non-partisan.

We actually never have the kind of fuss here about elections that Americans do. You'd think such an advanced nation could handle something so basically simple. Alas, no.
 
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