Published Date: Jun 29th, 2024
Ken Gourlay, Fife's Returning Officer said: "A high volume of people came to see us at Fife House today (Saturday 29 June) and we issued over 200 ballot packs. We were also able to advise people about when it’s possible to use emergency proxy voting, and to reassure others who aren’t leaving the country in the next day or so.
“If you're not travelling in the next couple of days, your postal pack should arrive in time to vote, we have no reason to believe otherwise. The national system has obviously been very busy and, while we expected all packs in our second despatch to have arrived by this weekend, that hasn't been the case, so we opened up today as an extraordinary measure to help those about to go away on holiday. However, it's likely most outstanding packs will arrive on Monday.
"If you registered for a postal vote before the deadline of 19 June and still haven't received it in the mail on Monday, email postals@fife.gov.uk and we'll make arrangements with you.
"Where we've seen people today and issued a replacement pack, we've cancelled the unique code on the vote sent to them originally, so there's no possibility of anyone voting twice. If they submit a postal vote that arrives later this week, the election scanners will reject the barcode so that it cannot be counted."
There is a national electoral timetable that dictates dates around postal vote administration.
- Fife Council uploaded the first batch of postal voter data on 10 June for processing and printing, to be issued by Royal Mail on 19 June. As stated by the council in advance, this despatch included packs for anyone who had been granted a postal vote by 7 June.
- Packs for people who registered for a postal vote after 7 June and before the deadline of 5pm on 19 June, were all issued via Royal Mail on Wednesday 26 June for delivery this weekend, as stated with online information about registering to vote in Fife.
- Friday 28 June was the first date that councils were allowed to accept applications for replacements for lost or spoilt postal votes.
- Given the number of people raising concerns, Fife Council opened its headquarters so that trained electoral staff could issue replacement packs for those about to travel.
- All packs should arrive by Monday 1 July, if they don't, voters should email postals@fife.gov.uk
- Postal votes don't have to be posted back, they can be taken to any polling station on 4 July, or handed in to the Returning Officer at Fife House during office hours up to the end of Thursday. Postal votes can be taken by someone on your behalf as long as you comply with the rules for handing in votes. You must speak to a member of the elections team and complete a Postal Return Form if you hand postal votes in. If you just leave the envelope your vote cannot be counted.