COPY LINK

ELECTIONS

Deadline day: What Brits in Europe can do to make sure they vote in UK election

Tuesday, June 18th is the deadline for Brits to register to vote in the UK's general election, but there are other measures you can take to make sure your vote gets to the ballot box on time.

Published: 18 June 2024 08:59 CEST

Deadline day: What Brits in Europe can do to make sure they vote in UK election

Labour Party activists Tim Holt (L) and Martyn Oliver prepare to erect a sign showing support for John Grogan, the Labour party candidate in the forthcoming general election, outside a residential property in the town centre of Silsden near Keighley, northwest England. Photo: Oli Scarff/AFP

The deadline for registering to vote in the UK election on July 4th is 11:59pm on Tuesday June 18th.

Is it too late to register for a postal vote?

While it is theoretically possible to register for a postal vote until 5pm on Wednesday 19th, it is far from certain that you will be able to get your postal voting pack sent out to you, vote, and send it back to the UK fast enough for your vote to have arrived by the deadline of 10pm on polling day, July 4th.

The UK’s Royal Mail aims to deliver letters to France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, and Austria within 3 to 4 working days, and to other European countries in The Local’s network within 3-5 days.

This means that while those who registered early should expect to receive their postal voting pack from about June 18th, those who apply on Wednesday may have to wait until June 25th or later.

Postnord in Sweden and Denmark aim to get a first class letter to the UK within 3-4 days, France’s La Poste and Germany’s Deutsche Post both take between 2-3 days, and Spain’s Correos aims to deliver to the UK in 2-4 days.

This means you might make it. But all of these services can sometimes take longer, so do you really want to trust them with something as important as your vote?

For Brits in Italy, with its notoriously slow postal service, it’s almost certainly too much of a risk.

If you registered months ago, can you guarantee getting your postal vote back on time?

Some councils in the UK sent out postal votes for overseas voters from June 13th, but some Brits have received emails informing them that they will be sent out much later, with one saying they will be sent from June 24th.

It’s worth ringing the electoral services team at your local council to check.

Indeed, some local councils in the UK (among them South Norfolk and Broadland) have already been in contact with Brits warning them it’s likely to be too tight and advising them to switch to a proxy vote.

Is it worth paying for a courier or registered delivery?

Many postal services will offer a more expensive faster service rather than the usual “snail mail” service or there are private firms like DHL that offer quicker delivery services.

Some Brits in Europe are discussing paying for a courier or some other form of express delivery if their voter pack arrives too close to the election.

This may well be worth it as most courier services guarantee to deliver letters within a few days, or even offer same day international delivery, meaning you can skip the worry over whether your ballot will arrive on time.

If I don’t want to take the risk, can I switch to a proxy?

If you apply for a proxy vote online you’ve got a bit more time, but you’ll still need to submit your application by 5pm on June 26th.

So you may prefer to opt for the proxy option, in which you authorise someone else in the UK to vote for you. Your proxy can either opt to vote in-person at your polling station or they can ask for a postal vote on your behalf.

Again, you can apply by post or online. If applying by post, your application needs to reach your local Electoral Registration Office by 5pm on June 19th.

If you have already applied for a postal vote, and want to shift to a proxy, can still make the change up until that same 5pm deadline.

Member comments

Become a Member to leave a comment.

The official campaigning period ends at midnight on Friday, followed by a day off on Saturday, during which political activity is forbidden ahead of voting on Sunday. Another week of campaigning will then lead up to the decisive second round on July 7th.

The far-right Rassemblement National (RN) is tipped to win the election, potentially giving the party the post of prime minister for the first time in its history in a tense “cohabitation” with centrist President Emmanuel Macron.

What’s at stake for foreigners in France if far-right Jordan Bardella becomes prime minister?

“Of course, I want to avoid the extremes, especially the far right, being able to win” the ballot, Macron’s Prime Minister Gabriel Attal told broadcaster BFMTV on Friday.

Opinion polls suggest his centrist alliance will come only third behind the RN and a broad but fragile left-wing coalition, the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP).

The RN party chief, Jordan Bardella, 28, would have a chance to lead a government as prime minister.

But he has insisted he would do so only if his party wins an absolute majority – 289 of the 577 seats in the National Assembly – after the second round.

His party’s path to victory could be blocked if the left and centre-right join forces against the RN in the second round of voting.

Macron has caused controversy in the past two weeks by placing the left and the far-right on the same footing, labelling both “extremes”.

Speaking in Brussels on Thursday, however, he suggested that he would support moderate leftists against the far-right in the second round.

Macron also blasted the “arrogance” of the far right, which had “already allocated all the (government) jobs” before the election and questioned the president’s constitutional role as military commander in chief.

“Who are they to explain what the constitution should say?” he asked.

The RN’s three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen had ratcheted up tensions by saying that the president’s commander-in-chief title was purely “honorific”.

In the event of Macron having to share power with an RN-led government, “it’s the prime minister who holds the purse strings”, she warned.

In a televised debate on Thursday night, Attal said that Le Pen’s remarks sent a “very serious message for the security of France.”

Bardella sought to reassure voters about his party’s foreign policy, saying in the debate he would “not let Russian imperialism absorb an allied state like Ukraine”.

He said he was also opposed to sending longer range missiles to Ukraine that could hit Russian territory “and place France and the French in a situation of co-belligerence”.

“My compass is the interest of France and the French,” said Bardella.

Macron has insisted he will serve out the remainder of his second term until it expires in 2027, no matter which party emerges on top in the coming legislative contest.

Le Pen, whom opponents have long accused of having too cosy a relationship with the Kremlin, senses that this could be her best-ever chance to win the Elysée Palace after three previous attempts.

When he called the snap vote after a June 9th European Parliament election drubbing by the RN, Macron had hoped to present voters with a stark choice about whether to hand France to the far right.

An Opinionway poll of 1,058 people published Friday in business daily Les Echos predicted the RN would win 37 percent of the vote, the NFP 28 percent and Macron’s alliance just 20 percent.

In the second round, the RN “can not only envisage a relative majority, but we cannot exclude, far from it, an absolute majority,” Brice Teinturier, deputy director of competing pollster Ipsos, told AFP.

The televised debate, where Attal and Bardella were joined by Socialist leader Olivier Faure, was as ill-tempered as the first such session on Tuesday.

Attal charged that 100 RN candidates standing in the election had made “racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic comments.”

“Everything is false, utterly false,” responded Bardella, who also defended a controversial proposal to bar dual nationals from sensitive state posts.

Underscoring the stakes felt by many in France from ethnic minority backgrounds, French basketball superstar Victor Wembanyama said “for me it is important to take a distance from extremes, which are not the direction to take for a country like ours”.

He joins a host of other French sports, music and acting stars who have spoken out against the far right.

How to follow all the latest French election news in English this weekend