Sky News has been reporting:
Latest figures from the Government’s Defence Analytical Services show that more than 34,000 full-time members of the Armed Forces are not registered to vote.
That is 19% of the services, almost one in five of those in uniform – their votes that could be pivotal in a tight contest.
The Electoral Commission has been running a campaign for months to try and persuade those in uniform to register.
However, according to a survey, more than half the military has not seen a leaflet and only 5% have had a Powerpoint presentation on the subject…Non-registration levels among the military are twice those in the civilian population, where 9% are not listed.
You can see the full report here.
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4 Comments
There are a number of issues, already raised in the Lords –
1. Should all recruits to the armed services be automatically registered to vote when they join the forces ?
2. To ensure that Postal votes arrive in time to be completed and returned we need a longer time than the 11 days between the close of nominations for Parliamentary elections and polling day .(Local elections have 19 days)The Electoral Commission wants 25.
3. Is it possible for Ballot papers to reach forces in places like Afghanistan and be returned in time to be counted ?
4
4 Will the government keep their promise to give priority at this coming election to enable Postal ballots to reach the forces in time and make room available in military planes ?
Unlock Democracy has been shouting about this for a while now: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/29/armed-forces-vote
I’ve opined on this one a number of times. I saw one of my roles as a CO was to encourage participation, since we are there to execute the policy of an ostensibly democratic process.
The most effective way to assure participation is to establish a proxy. All this pontificating about prioritising paperwork out to FOBs and PBs interferes with the decisions of local commanders about logistic priorities. Are we really saying that postal ballots are more important than food, water and ammunition?
It’s perfectly simple to sort out individual representation prior to a deployment, a time when there is a lot of admin to be sorted out. That’s where the focus should be.
The 34,000 serving British troops should already be registered to vote in any Elections during tours of duty overseas.
The very thought that those men and women who have done most to uphold liberty in overseas postings for Queen and Country are not registered to vote in the Elections of 2010 suspends human belief.