Ribble Valley: Don't risk your postal vote with missing paperwork warning

160 postal votes were rejected in Ribble Valley at the 2017 General Election due to voters not returning their postal voting statement with their ballot paper.

To vote by post, you must be a registered elector and have successfully applied for a postal vote, which includes providing your date-of-birth and signature, known as "personal identifiers", by the deadline.

In the case of the forthcoming General Election, this is 5pm tomorrow (Tuesday, November 26th).

You return your ballot paper in a sealed envelope, along with your postal voting statement containing your date-of-birth and signature, which are checked against your personal identifiers.

Ballot papers remain in sealed envelopes and are counted along with other votes on election night.

But ballot papers returned without a postal voting statement are provisionally rejected.

And if the missing statement has not been received by polling day the ballot paper is rejected outright.

Ribble Valley Borough Council’s electoral officer, Jane Horsfield, said: “Some postal voters are returning their ballot paper and postal voting statement separately, or not returning their statement at all. Each postal vote contains clear instructions on what to do and voters are being warned that if they do not return the correct paperwork their vote may well be rejected.”

The Ribble Valley constituency has around 10,000 postal voters from a 78,000-plus electorate. Advice for Ribble Valley postal voters is available from the council’s elections team on 01200 425111.