The relationship between inter-constituency migration and postal voting

Abstract

In general elections in the United Kingdom the majority of people who cast a vote do so in person on polling day by visiting the polling station assigned to them on their poll card. However, there are other people, also eligible to vote, who for a variety of reasons find themselves unable to attend their polling station on polling day. In response to this difficulty, successive British governments since 1950 have enacted legislation allowing certain categories of registered electors to vote by post. Hence, in 1983 624,000 postal votes were cast (2.0 per cent of the total), rising to 780,000 (2.4 per cent) in 1987 (Butler and Kavanagh, 1988, pp. 234-5). The register of postal voters topped one million just before the 1992 general election (7&e Times, 24 March 1992). It is with one section of these postal voters that this research note is concerned. Potential voters moving out of a constituency since the compilation of the last electoral register are one of the main categories of people entitled to a postal vote in their former constituency. The other principal categories are certain elderly and sick people, people whose jobs mean that they may be away from their home constituency on polling day (for example, long-distance lorry drivers) and people living in extremely remote locations. In addition, since 1985, people holidaying away from their constituency and Britons resident overseas for up to 20 years are also eligible for a postal vote. It is the extent to which the first category, ‘migrants’, take advantage of their entitlement which interests us here. A postal vote must be claimed at least two weeks before the election, and it seems likely that a high proportion of those entitled to a postal vote do not claim one in time. Prospective postal voters resident in the constituency for which they are registered may be covered by a claim made at an earlier election, or may be