It won’t be long now until the campaigns for the County Council and European elections on June 4th start in earnest.
It is not too late to obtain a postal vote if you are going to be away, or you think that this would be a more convenient way to vote. Babergh is responsible for running the elections, and therefore it is to Babergh that you need to apply.
To find out more information go to the Babergh Website and follow the links from the Home Page/ Council and Democracy/Electoral Information/Voting by Post or Proxy. A form can be downloaded from the site. Applications to vote by post have to be received eleven working days before the poll, and applications for proxies six days in advance.
The rather small image above shows the growth of postal voting up between 1999 and 2007. The increase in postal votes in recent years makes planning a campaign more complex since people receive their ballot papers some days before the actual election. This of course means that one can’t rely entirely on getting a message into the community at the last minute because by then many people will have already voted!
In addition to thinking about postal votes, I have started to look at the ‘telling’ records, produced at the District Council elections in 2007. From these it is possible to see who turned out to vote on the day. The hope is of course that people will, regardless of political persuasion, turn out again! A low turnout is a sad reflection on the state of democracy in the country.
Actually Waldingfield Ward put up a pretty good show as far as percentage turnout was concerned. I don’t have the actual number to hand at present, but it was in excess of 40%. I went on a course a few months after the election and discovered that in comparison with the Wards of other councillors from elsewhere in the country this was a good result (although in absolute terms it seems pretty low!)
Let’s hope we keep up the good record in 2009.
