It's that time again!

Hard to believe that five years have gone by since the start of our last campaign to encourage serving personnel and their partners to make sure they are registered to vote, and then exercise their own voting choice.

BAFF, ARRSE and the Service Voting Campaign of 2005

Hard to believe that some of the troops serving the country in Afghanistan, and eligible to vote for the first time in a General Election, were only 13 or 14 at the time of the last Service Voting campaign.

Apologies to all those who since 2005 have suffered death by PowerPoint on the subject of electoral registration. It's our fault I'm afraid! Now is the time to start thinking about putting all that exciting electoral knowledge into practice. Even if you are serving at the arrse end of beyond.

Unlike last time round, there are things being done about service voting in the General Election, so do watch this space, and the BAFF website at www.baff.org.uk.

Sadly we will have to manage this time without the fantastic support of the late Lib Dem defence spokesman and retd Air Marshal Lord Tim Garden - tgarden on ARRSE. However, I can confirm that the campaign is supported by members of each of the major political parties - and no doubt by other politicians as well - and by the three service family federations and by BAFF.

Member of the Armed Forces (or husband, wife, civil partner)

from a House of Lord debate on 19 Jan about Postal Voting:

Lord Rogan: My Lords, a special section of the electorate, namely our Armed Forces personnel serving overseas, are in many cases disfranchised by the short time between nomination and polling day. Will the Government at least consider some special arrangement whereby these personnel will no longer be disfranchised by their postal votes?

Lord Bach: I am grateful to the noble Lord. A lot of work has been going on and there have been debates in this House. We are still actively attempting to make sure that our soldiers and personnel from other services who are serving in Afghanistan have the chance to vote by post. Each of them can vote by proxy if they want to, but it is thought that many would rather vote by post. There is a scheme which will work within the existing electoral timetable and legislative framework, subject of course to operational priorities, because of the time saved by using the regular military supply flights to Afghanistan. A great deal of work is going on to make sure that our troops in Afghanistan will be able to vote.

[Hansard source]

Originally Posted by hackle

from a House of Lord debate on 19 Jan about Postal Voting:

Lord Rogan: My Lords, a special section of the electorate, namely our Armed Forces personnel serving overseas, are in many cases disfranchised by the short time between nomination and polling day. Will the Government at least consider some special arrangement whereby these personnel will no longer be disfranchised by their postal votes?

Lord Bach: There is a scheme which will work within the existing electoral timetable and legislative framework, subject of course to operational priorities, because of the time saved by using the regular military supply flights to Afghanistan. A great deal of work is going on to make sure that our troops in Afghanistan will be able to vote.

Is BAFF convinced that the scheme will work within the existing time scale considering the problems at the air head when additional pressures are placed on them.

General Elections – Votes that count

Danish Soldiers...................Yes
Canadian soldiers................Yes
American soldiers................Yes
British soldiers......................No
French soldiers...................Yes
German soldiers..................Yes

If you think our British soldiers/sailors/airmen deployed in Afghanistan (and elsewhere overseas) should have a direct vote in the choice of those who govern them, sign the petition at:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ServiceVotes/

Service personnel and their families stationed overseas are effectively disenfranchised by our electoral system. They are advised by the Ministry of Defence to vote by proxy. Voting by secret ballot in person in the UK is not an option for most overseas personnel. Postal votes are, because of electoral tight time scales and logistical challenges, unlikely to get back in time to count. Other nations are able to provide their military community, serving abroad, with effective secret ballots. It is now time for our Government to provide the same opportunities for the British Service communities overseas.

Originally Posted by votes4all

Service personnel and their families stationed overseas are effectively disenfranchised by our electoral system. They are advised by the Ministry of Defence to vote by proxy. Voting by secret ballot in person in the UK is not an option for most overseas personnel. Postal votes are, because of electoral tight time scales and logistical challenges, unlikely to get back in time to count. Other nations are able to provide their military community, serving abroad, with effective secret ballots. It is now time for our Government to provide the same opportunities for the British Service communities overseas.

Very behind the times however there have been problems in the past getting the necessary paper mountain out but the saying - "you can take a horse to water" also kicks in at times.

Lets hope the horse does kick in. The proposal of using supply flights to take postal ballots to and from the troops in Afghanistan is not guaranteed and there is nothing on the table to address the other 35,000+ military personnel and families living overseas. Sign the petition and and pass this on!
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ServiceVotes/

Originally Posted by elovabloke

Originally Posted by hackle

from a House of Lord debate on 19 Jan about Postal Voting:

Lord Rogan: My Lords, a special section of the electorate, namely our Armed Forces personnel serving overseas, are in many cases disfranchised by the short time between nomination and polling day. Will the Government at least consider some special arrangement whereby these personnel will no longer be disfranchised by their postal votes?

Lord Bach: There is a scheme which will work within the existing electoral timetable and legislative framework, subject of course to operational priorities, because of the time saved by using the regular military supply flights to Afghanistan. A great deal of work is going on to make sure that our troops in Afghanistan will be able to vote.

Is BAFF convinced that the scheme will work within the existing time scale considering the problems at the air head when additional pressures are placed on them.

No one - certainly not me - will guarantee that an individual vote will get back in time to be counted. The argument goes that no other system is absolutely guaranteed either, and that the reasonable possibility of voting by post would be better than no possibility at all for those not in a position to appoint a proxy.

I welcome the Government's acceptance - as indicated in the Hansard quote - of the case we have been making all along that proxy voting is fine for some but is not a realistic option for a significant number of armed forces personnel.

It would be interesting to hear what those in theatre or who have served there recently think about this, and whether you would consider using a postal vote from Afghanistan if there was a reasonable prospect (never guarantee) of it getting back in time to be counted.

Yes, as I understand it this proposal is for Afghanistan only and I appreciate that raises a raft of new questions.

Originally Posted by votes4all

Lets hope the horse does kick in. The proposal of using supply flights to take postal ballots to and from the troops in Afghanistan is not guaranteed and there is nothing on the table to address the other 35,000+ military personnel and families living overseas. Sign the petition and and pass this on!
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ServiceVotes/

BAFF is not behind this petition, but I recognise the name of the petition creator and I believe that the petition is particularly well crafted. Calling for a change in Government policy does not necessarily mean that work is not already taking place on some issues with a view to inclusion in the next tranche of electoral legislation, which is what happened after the 2005 General Election.

I reckon that the petition should add strength to the arm of those already working now for further changes in electoral legislation, and increase the pressure on Government and Parliament after the General Election. Therefore I was very happy to sign the petition myself.

Thank you for signing the petition. The men and women in Her Majesty’s Armed Forces serve overseas in the interests of the government and are prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

In 2005 the Iraqi nationals living in UK had more chance of their postal votes counting in their national elections than the British troops in Iraq had of their postal votes counting in the 2005 general election.

As the 2010 general election looms on the horizon yet again are British troops overseas being denied their democratic right to a direct vote in the choice of those who will govern them. Other countries are able to provide their military personnel serving abroad with the means to exercise their right to a secret vote.

A better solution needs to be found by the government if it is to enfranchise Service personnel and would really show the government’s commitment to honouring their Armed Forces personnel and their families overseas by ensuring that they can exercise their democratic right to vote by secret ballot from overseas.

Out of curiousity, why can't the votes of deployed personnel be counted in theatre and the results sent to the relevant constituency?