Postal voters without packs urged to contact councils

People who have signed up for a postal vote and have yet to receive their packs are being urged to contact their council.

Many of Scotland’s local authorities said anyone who had not received their postal votes by Monday should get in touch to find out alternative options.

Some councils opened emergency drop-in centres over the weekend, while others offered to send out replacement packs.

Voters are also being reminded they will need a valid form of ID to vote in person on Thursday.

BBC Scotland News has contacted all 32 councils to ask for guidance for voters who have not yet received their postal ballot.

Most local authorities, including Aberdeen City, Angus and North Ayrshire, said the last remaining voting packs should have been delivered on Saturday.

But anyone who is still waiting should get in touch as soon as possible.

East Lothian and Scottish Borders councils set up emergency facilities over the weekend to enable voters who will be away this week to collect postal packs in person.

Edinburgh, East Renfrewshire and Fife said they will keep their special facilities open until polling day.

Fife’s returning officer said more than 200 replacement ballots were issued on Saturday.

The UK deadline to apply for postal vote applications was 19 June.

Any long-term postal voters or those who applied before 7 June should have received their voting pack last week.

But many people were unaware that if they applied after 7 June, their voting papers would be sent out in a second batch, with some only despatched in recent days.

In Scotland, where the school term ends earlier than elsewhere in the UK, some voters had left the country for summer holidays before their postal ballots arrived.

For those still in the country and without a voting pack, replacement packs can be obtained from council offices.

If voters are concerned about posting dates for returning them, many councils have arrangements for handing them in at offices.

Alternatively they can be handed in by voters in person on polling day at their local polling station.

But for anyone already out of the country there is little that can be done, barring a return home to vote.

The deadline for proxy votes has passed and emergency proxy votes are only possible in limited circumstances such as being called away suddenly for work.

Royal Mail said it had investigated concerns over the delivery of postal votes in some areas but had found no backlogs in any of its offices in Scotland.

For those intending to vote in person on Thursday, reminders about new voter ID rules are being issued.

Since May 2023, voters have had to show a valid form of photo ID at polling stations to vote in person at UK elections.

Identification was required at last year’s Rutherglen and Hamilton West by election, but this is the first widespread vote in Scotland since the rules came into force.

The Electoral Reform Society (ERS) is concerned thousands of voters will be prevented from voting due to the new rules.

Speaking on BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Willie Sullivan, of the ERS, said: “It will exclude many people from voting, because particularly in Scotland this is the first time we’ve ever used it in elections.

“There’s going to be a lot of people who turn up at the polling station who don’t know they need voter ID and will be turned away.”

The ERS estimates that up to 14,000 people were prevented from voting at the 2023 local government elections in England, because they didn’t have voter ID.

Mr Sullivan said: “If one person doesn’t get to vote that’s bad enough, but we think thousands of people won’t get to vote.

“We think that will happen on Thursday in Scotland.”

A full list of acceptable forms of ID, which includes passports and a UK driving licence, can be found here.