British Expats Voting in Parliamentary Elections

[Spa06Jc]

Hi All,

Just wanted to see if anyone had heard anything recently about the 2019 Tory manifesto commitment to remove the 15 year limit on expats voting in UK national elections?

I know there are quite a few Brits in this community who would likely benefit from a change like that (myself included!), but it wasn't really promoted in 2019 and I have seen nothing about it since. Appreciate the Brexit mess and COVID19 have likely taken up most of the government agenda, but I'm really hoping this is one pledge they follow through on.

The wording was We will make it easier for British expats to vote in Parliamentary elections, and get rid of the arbitrary 15-year limit on their voting rights.

[Bushiman]

My 15yr limit came to an end in 2020 and fat lot of good it did me
Everything I voted for, elections, referendum, didn't turn out very well...

Still, I would like a vote... After all, I do have family, friends there, plus I'd like to continue voluntary UK pension contributions and reap the benefits in 20 or so years time... Maybe my vote would help with that...
Fingers crossed for the best...

[kuma]

Not heard anything about this for a while. Some good resources here, including logistics of the proposed change, likely numbers of people affected, and the lowdown on a previous attempt to scrap the 15yr rule: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/re ... s/sn05923/

I'm well within the 15yr period at the moment, and am just doing my annual registration.

I'd be interested in updates as and when people become aware of them.

[Gareth]

I didn't register to vote in the EU referendum. There was a rumour flying round at the time that registering to vote would open you up to needing to pay council tax in the constituency you end up voting in. I asked the British Embassy in Tokyo about this and they told me to ask the Electoral Commission. I asked the Electoral Commission and they told me to ask the British Embassy in Tokyo. So I never registered. I presume this was nonsense and no-one got billed for council tax in this way? At the time though, I didn't want to take the risk.

This part in the link above is interesting:
"Overseas voters would continue to be registered at a previous address in the UK and the Electoral Registration Officer would need to be satisfied of their connection with that address. The registration will last for twelve months and will then have to be renewed."
That would be fine if parents or other relatives still lived at that address, but it would be a bit odd to be registered at an address where you have no connection to the people that live there now.

I'm now past the 15 years rule too so will keep an eye on this too. Thanks for the post.

[RetireJapan]

I timed out before the Brexit referendum unfortunately.

[kuma]

This part in the link above is interesting:
"Overseas voters would continue to be registered at a previous address in the UK and the Electoral Registration Officer would need to be satisfied of their connection with that address. The registration will last for twelve months and will then have to be renewed."
That would be fine if parents or other relatives still lived at that address, but it would be a bit odd to be registered at an address where you have no connection to the people that live there now.

I think this refers to your connection to the address at the point when you ceased to be resident rather than an ongoing connection to that address, eg you say you moved to Peru 50 years ago, kindly prove you were in Basingstoke immediately prior to that in order to register on the electoral roll.

[adamu]

There was a rumour flying round at the time that registering to vote would open you up to needing to pay council tax in the constituency you end up voting in. I asked the British Embassy in Tokyo about this and they told me to ask the Electoral Commission. I asked the Electoral Commission and they told me to ask the British Embassy in Tokyo. So I never registered. I presume this was nonsense and no-one got billed for council tax in this way?

First I've heard of it, and sounds like nonsense to me too. Eligibility to vote and payment of council tax are completely unrelated. The only thing I can think of is if you somehow didn't pay council tax when you were liable for it - by living in or owning a property in the UK, and by registering to vote with your local authority, they look you up and find out you've not paid your taxes.

Since the brexit vote there has been a European parliament and 2 general elections that British citizens resident abroad were eligible to participate in.

[Gareth]

This part in the link above is interesting:
"Overseas voters would continue to be registered at a previous address in the UK and the Electoral Registration Officer would need to be satisfied of their connection with that address. The registration will last for twelve months and will then have to be renewed."
That would be fine if parents or other relatives still lived at that address, but it would be a bit odd to be registered at an address where you have no connection to the people that live there now.

I think this refers to your connection to the address at the point when you ceased to be resident rather than an ongoing connection to that address, eg you say you moved to Peru 50 years ago, kindly prove you were in Basingstoke immediately prior to that in order to register on the electoral roll.

I mean it would be odd for the people still living at that address to have someone who doesn't live there and hasn't lived there for numerous years to be registered at that address for voting purposes as it says in the article. If I lived at an address in the UK and I found out that someone else was registered at that address for voting purposes, that wouldn't sit very well.

[kuma]

This part in the link above is interesting:
"Overseas voters would continue to be registered at a previous address in the UK and the Electoral Registration Officer would need to be satisfied of their connection with that address. The registration will last for twelve months and will then have to be renewed."
That would be fine if parents or other relatives still lived at that address, but it would be a bit odd to be registered at an address where you have no connection to the people that live there now.

I think this refers to your connection to the address at the point when you ceased to be resident rather than an ongoing connection to that address, eg you say you moved to Peru 50 years ago, kindly prove you were in Basingstoke immediately prior to that in order to register on the electoral roll.

I mean it would be odd for the people still living at that address to have someone who doesn't live there and hasn't lived there for numerous years to be registered at that address for voting purposes as it says in the article. If I lived at an address in the UK and I found out that someone else was registered at that address for voting purposes, that wouldn't sit very well.

I suspect it's a case of clumsy wording. 

I think they keep your old address on file somewhere in case there are boundary changes. I think you'd be registered as an overseas voter and there would be a behind-the-scenes tie to that old address purely for this reason (one hopes...), but this wouldn't be the same as being outright on the electoral roll at that address. Agree that it would be very odd if current residents and former residents were fully registered at the same address!

The wording used on the gov.uk site when registering as an overseas voter is:

What was the UK address where you were last registered to vote?
This is where your vote will be counted in elections.

https://www.registertovote.service.gov. ... uk-address

In terms of practicalities, my experience was that this was one of the most painless procedures involved with an international move. I informed my last-registered constituency in the UK of my move. They registered me as an overseas voter. They ask me to renew my registration annually (until 15 years are up, under current rules). All paper correspondence uses my address in Japan, though they always send the letter as a PDF by email as well, and the renewal statement can be scanned and emailed back to them. It was also straightforward to set up a proxy. Thoroughly recommended for anyone eligible who hasn't yet registered. From my experience, anyway.

[Gareth]

That's good to know. Thanks for the info Kuma. I regret not registering before my 15 years were up. But let's hope the systems changes and remains smooth.