Call for 'absent voters' to provide fresh details
People in
the Scarborough borough who traditionally vote by post are being
asked to provide a fresh signature to ensure their vote counts in
future ballots.
When people initially apply to vote by
post, they are required to provide a signature and date of
birth.
These are known as personal identifiers
which are subsequently checked against the details submitted in a
postal voting statement when there is an election to ensure they
match.
If the details do not match, the vote
cannot be counted.
Because people’s signatures and
circumstances can change over time, the Electoral Registration
Officer, through councils, ask for updated personal identifiers to
be submitted every five years, to ensure the signatures for as many
absent voters as possible are refreshed, producing as accurate a
record as possible and potentially limiting the number of postal
votes that are rejected due to mis-matched identifiers.
Therefore, anyone who has had a postal,
proxy or postal proxy since January 2007 will be sent a signature
refresh form from Scarborough Borough Council to legally request
latest signatures.
Residents are being asked to look out for
the form and sign and return it as soon as possible.
If residents have a disability which means
they cannot provide a signature or sign in a consistent and
distinctive way, they are asked to indicate this on the form and
make sure the name and address of their helper is provided.
Residents who longer want to vote by post must respond by
ticking the relevant box on the form before returning it.