Electoral Registration and Administration — Schedule 5 — Eligibility for Absentee Ballot — 25 Jun 2012 at 22:00

The majority of MPs voted to prevent an elector being being issued an absentee ballot if they had not successfully applied to register to vote during the operation of the first "canvass" under the new individual voter registration system.

The alternative rejected in the vote was to only remove the entitlement to an absentee ballot from those who had not successfully applied to register to vote during the operation of the first and second "canvass" under the individual voter registration system.

An absentee ballot is a vote cast by someone who is unable or unwilling to attend the official polling station or to which the voter is normally allocated

MPs were considering the Electoral Registration and Administration Bill^[1]. The amendment rejected in this vote was:

Amendment proposed: 18, page 31, line 6, leave out ‘first’ and insert ‘second’.

Had it not been rejected this would have affected Schedule 5 part 4 of the Bill^[2], specifically paragraph 17 titled ''Entitlement to absent vote ceases after first new canvass if no successful new application for

registration or confirmation of registration'' which started:

• (1) Sub-paragraph (2) applies if, on the day on which a registration officer in Great Britain publishes a register following the first new canvass—
• (a) a person is shown in the absent voters’ record as the result of an application made in reliance on the person’s registration in the register, and
• (b) the person was registered in the register immediately before the commencement date and has not had his or her entitlement to remain registered confirmed or made a successful new application for registration in the register.
• (2) The officer must remove the person’s entry from the absent voters’ record so far as the entry concerns elections of the kind to which the register relates.

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• [1] Parliament's webpage on the Electoral Registration and Administration Bill (now an Act)
• [2] Schedule 5 part 4 of the Electoral Registration and Administration Bill

Debate in Parliament | Source |