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Important - postal vote needs a stamp!


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This is from another forum but is important so please don’t delete it.

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I have received a message from a user so shall copy and paste it here as it concerns the return of your votes – Dont know if this has already been noted here but as it is such an important topic I am copying anyway reports from other sites

‘Another hot topic – just come back from La Poste in the village – postmistress advising that the ‘Free Postage’ envelope that people will be sending back their votes in, will be ignored by La Poste as they will not be paid for them. ‘Poste Priorite’ is only 1 euro per envelope. Please share’

Sorry this is a bit lengthy but for those people who have already posted their postal votes in the post boxes, before this all came to light, we have been down to our local sorting office this morning, they couldn’t have been more helpful, went away and checked all the letters waiting for processing but couldn’t find them, but said that a stamp is definitely needed. So, I have tried to ring my local council in UK, no reply so I rang the House of Commons, they gave me the number for the Electoral Commission which is 0044 333 1031928. I have tried to explain to them that the problem is France wide not just our department in 53 and that why should we in effectively lose our vote for following the voting instructions to the letter. I have also asked that we be granted a ‘proxy’ vote instead. I am waiting for a call back from them. If your vote won’t be counted please ring the electoral Commission and/or your local council in the UK. We have enough MPs in Brussels, at least one of them should have been given the job of making sure that the postage paid envelopes should be honoured -or simpler still – they should have just sent them out in ordinary envelopes then we would have stamped them anyway. Thank you all for taking the time to read. I hope we get something sorted for us, our futures could be altered quite considerably by the outcome of this referendum.’

Thought you all ought to know.
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I don't expect them to allow special proxy votes if people can't be bothered to read the instructions.

It's clearly stated on the application form.

A Freepost envelope is included in

your postal ballot pack. But, if you are sending

it from overseas, you will need to pay the

postage
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I emailed my local authority about this and they have replied:

Thank you for your email.

Our first run of overseas electors ballot papers were despatched by Airmail yesterday, these included a special pre-paid international return envelope as directed by The Electoral Commission and specifically arranged with Royal Mail for this referendum only.

The Electoral Commission contact details are:

Public enquiries and information

Please telephone 0333 103 1928 or email info@electoralcommission.org.uk. Alternatively please write to the Electoral Commission at the address: 3 Bunhill Row

London, EC1Y 8YZ

Should you now wish to cancel your postal vote and vote by proxy; we will first require the return of these postal ballot papers no later than 5pm 8 June – these would have to be returned in a plain envelope with your request to cancel (as if you used the reply envelope these will only be opened at an official postal vote opening sessions which may not be until after that deadline of the 8th June)

I attach a proxy application form should you now wish to change your voting method.
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Despite the "Stamp required " notice on the application form, the Electoral Commission issued a ruling earlier this year.

"Counting Officers must make arrangements with Royal Mail for an international business response licence and ensure that this is used on all return envelopes included in postal ballot packs to be sent to overseas addresses."

So one assumes that the correct envelope will have been included in all/most postal votes heading to Fance. You can't rule out errors when you are dealing with outsourced mailing .
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I decided to be safe rather than sorry - and put a stamp on it.

Honestly, for the price of a stamp is it really worth not doing it?  Penny pinching is not worth it in this scenario.

And in my original post after our voting forms had arrived, I advised putting a stamp on it ... ours certainly did not look as though they were post payee  in France, so I did not take the risk.

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Judith, I am not arguing with you about the importance of making sure we do vote and neither am I arguing about the price of a stamp.

However, just to be factual, my envelope is obviously meant for France.  It says Airmail and REPONSE PAYEE GRANDE BRETAGNE and the stamp "rectangle" has a line across it and Ne Pas Affranchir.

So as not to be confused by the word "payee", I looked it up in the OUD and in this case it means destinataire.

Now if they want us to stamp it, why go to the trouble of writing all that information in French, other than to make it clear to the French post office that they bill GB for the postage?

I always have packs of stamps for Europe in the house so no problem to stick one on my form.

Edit:  have googled and here is the definitive answer

[url]http://www.answers.com/Q/What_does_response_payee_grande-bretagne_mean?#slide=3[/url]

As Corporal Jones might say, "don't panic, don't panic!" 

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As I said above, the requirement is to include return postage for forms sent to voters outside the UK. Hence all the international wording on the envelopes people are receiving.

This is a change of policy from normal elections, and is contrary to the wording of the application form.

If I was a Brexit supporter I might be a little suspicious as to why the policy was changed.....
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It was changed in reaction to the fiasco after the General Election, when many overseas voters didn't get their postal vote in time to get them back in time. This was investigated by the electoral commission and a number of changes made, including adding a free pay envelope for overseas voters.
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Mint,

Totally agree. Agree, it does look as though it shouldn't need a stamp, but hey, I'm a suspicious soul, and feel that tradition may well overcome what it says .... especially in rural areas.  As I said, better safe than sorry.

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[quote user="PaulT"]With the funny rules that the French seem to have is there a danger of putting a stamp on something that does not need a stamp mean it will not be delivered? :)[/quote]

 Spot on PaulT. I read the above out to Mrs c.(she doesn't do social media) and she responded with "Yeah. There's someone who's got the hang of living in France"

regards

cajal

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From what I have read on various forums it would seem that different envelopes are being sent out.

Some have a window envelope together with a brown envelope for the vote.

Some, like ours that turned up today have the postage window as described with no brown inner envelope.
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[quote user="Mrs KG"]Judith, when did you receive your forms? We've not had ours yet so maybe I need to chase.

Thanks Mrs KG[/quote]

Mrs KG, they arrived in the same post last Tuesday, which is interesting as we have different surnames, mine at beginning of alphabet, his at end, and often our pension info for example arrives days apart. 

I was surprised they were so early, but from what someone else said, and this seems logical, they are sent out from the last council where you voted, so each may vary somewhat.  Our last was City of Westminster, who may be used to sending out postal votes, and who have always seemed on the ball to me.  I have organised a postal vote since I came out here, OH only did it this year, but with my prodding he did do it in good time, and maybe this also made a difference.

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Mrs K.G.

I enquired about getting our (usual) U.K. postal vote sent to France and was told that as we were applying later our envelopes would be in the second batch mail-out and they couldn't guarantee that we would receive them in time.

We will have to ask a U.K. neighbour to forward them to us in France.

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Thanks,

I contacted Teignbridge to ask if they'd been posted only to receive a very apologetic reply that having confirmed they had received the forms (a confirmation email to say the scanned forms were acceptable some weeks ago) they could not find them and that we would need to resend by 12 noon to be in the 2 June batch to be sent out. I duly did this and got a scanned letter reply by email (addressed correctly) that stated the address in the body of the letter that the forms are being sent to - guess what, yep, incorrect address - I doubt we will be able to cast our vote at this rate - and I thought it was only france that made such c*** ups!

Mrs KG
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[quote user="Mrs KG"]

I contacted Teignbridge to ask if they'd been posted only to receive a very apologetic reply that having confirmed they had received the forms (a confirmation email to say the scanned forms were acceptable some weeks ago) they could not find them ... [/quote]

Our (joint) efforts to vote might come to nothing as well.

Having duly completed the online gov.uk application for registration to vote and had it accepted I downloaded the application for a postal vote, completed said form and emailed it to our last local council in the UK.

Receiving no confirmatory email/notification nor any postal vote forms from them I rang them on Tuesday to ask if all was OK.

At first our applications could not be traced but, after gentle nudging, the young lad on the other end went off to speak to a colleague who agreed that our emails had been rec'd but that they had done nothing about them yet as there was still plenty of time.

Reiterating that we lived in France I asked if they could post them out asap and he agreed.

Whether that will actually happen is anyone's guess.

As I have said before our postal votes for the election last year arrived here 4 days after the vote.

Somehow I feel that our previous Lincolnshire council doesn't process many applications for postal votes.

Sue

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