Don't Forget Your Right to Vote
Bedford Borough residents are being urged to
return important registration forms to make sure they are eligible
to vote.
Each year, from the end of August, Electoral
Services send Voter Registration Forms to every home within
the borough asking residents to register all eligible voters and
anyone who will become 18. The Electoral Register is updated
each year during this annual canvass period, September to November,
and a new Register is published on the 1 December.
Residents are being asked to add anyone who
should be registered and wasn't on the list and cross out anyone
who no longer lives at the address. The form should then be signed
and returned to the council. To help keep costs down, residents can
also use the telephone or internet if there is no change to their
details.
Under the law these forms must be returned each year, whether
residents intend to vote or not. Failure to return the form could
lead to a fine of up to £1000.
Residents need to be included on the register
if they are:
18 and over
British, Irish, European or qualifying
Commonwealth citizen
16 / 17 years old (so that everyone is
eligible to vote as soon as they turn 18)
living at an address within Bedford
Borough on 15 October
Canvassers will be calling on all householders
who haven't responded to the canvass by Friday 1st October
Keith Simmons, Head of Registration and
Records, said:
“I’d like to thank everyone who has already
sent back their voter registration forms. Completed forms are
needed to register all eligible voters so that they can take place
in local and national elections. Residents are required to complete
these forms by law. Where they aren’t returned we will re-contact
homes to find out why we haven’t received them.”
Don't assume that because you were registered
last year that your name will be automatically included in this
year's Register of Electors. There are regulations regarding the
removal of names from the Register in the event of a non-response
to the annual canvass from a household.
Also, being on the Council Tax Register does
not automatically mean that you are on the Register of Electors.
The two registers contain different information.”