Brits Abroad Fear Postal Delays Will Stop Them Voting In The General Election

There are warnings that a "chaotic and broken" postal system will stop voters overseas from taking part in the General Election. One Brit in Australia told PoliticsHome the “chances are” they will not get to have a say this time around due to delays. 

Thanks to a change in the law earlier this year, UK citizens who have been out of the country for more than 15 years will be able to vote on 4 July in the last constituency they lived in the UK. The change has expanded the franchise to hundreds of thousands more people, who are able to cast a ballot this time by post or by proxy. 

However, overseas voters and campaigners have raised concerns about issues with the postal systems in place, and whether people will definitely be able to cast their ballot in time.

Simon Mack, and his wife Chris, lived in Italy for 26 years and have been in Australia for around the last four years, and said that when “they eventually got around to allowing overseas voters” they were “one of the first to apply”. 

Mack told PoliticsHome that they registered “without any great difficulty”, but as of Wednesday evening Australia-time, their ballot papers had not yet arrived.

“If they arrive in the next week, we could courier them back, but the chances are we won’t be getting our vote this time around.” 

“We opted for the postal vote because that seemed to be the most obvious one," he said, adding that they opted for the postal option, believing that the proxy would have to attend the polling station in person, which they did not think would be possible. However, they have since learned that a proxy would have been able to submit a postal vote on their behalf too. 

“It’s being sent here, I would be surprised if it turns up in the next week,” he said. 

Mack,