Watch: How to complete your postal ballot for Highland Council election
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Voters have until 5pm today – Tuesday, April 19 – to apply for a postal ballot as the first packs are sent out to those wishing to send in their votes.
Postal voters are being reminded to read the instructions carefully when completing their pack to ensure their vote counts as packs start to be dispatched for the Highland Council election.
The postal pack will contain: Envelope A / Postal Voting Statement; Ballot paper; Return envelope (Envelope B); and a guide to completing your postal vote.
When voting by post, voters need to fill in a form called the postal voting statement, which accompanies the ballot paper – your signature and date of birth must be provided.
As a security measure, they are matched against the signature and date of birth the voter provided when they applied to vote by post – it is important that this signature conforms to the signature that you gave at the time of your postal application.
Councillors will be elected using the single transferable voting system whereby electors will be asked to mark their ballot paper by ranking as many or as few candidates on the ballot in preferential order 1,2,3,4, and so on.
To assist voters the council has made a short video clip explaining how to correctly complete and return your postal ballot, which can be viewed above.
Answers to FAQs are also available to provide helpful information can be found here
All packs will be dispatched in time for voters to complete and return before polls close at 10pm on May 5.
Any registered postal voters who have not received their postal ballot pack by Monday, April 25, should phone the Highland election helpline on 01349 886647.
Highland Council chief executive Donna Manson, the returning officer for Highland, said: “Postal voting is growing in popularity as a convenient way for voters to have their say but at every election, some postal votes are invalid, because the voter either forgets to sign the postal voting statement or writes down the date on which they filled it in, rather than their date of birth.
“I would urge postal voters to take the time to read the guidance enclosed in the postal pack, complete the Postal Vote statement with the correct information and vote using the single transferable voting system so your voting preferences count.”
Anyone who has requested a postal vote will not be able to vote in person at a polling station. However, they will be able to hand their complete postal pack into any polling station within Highland between 7am and 10pm on Thursday, May 5, if they are unable to post it in time.
