Postal voting reminder as ballot packs land

Would-be voters in Manchester who have chosen to vote by post are being encouraged to send their completed ballot packs in as soon as possible.

More than 60,000 postal voting packs for the local elections and referendum on the voting system used to elect MPs in parliamentary elections are being delivered across the city and should all have been received by Thursday 21 April. For those postal voters who are eligible to vote in both the local elections and referendum, the two ballot packs will arrive enclosed in the same envelope.

Anyone who has registered for a postal vote but not received their pack by Tuesday 26 April should contact the council's elections unit on 0161 2341212. This is also the number for any other electoral queries.

Postal voters are also being reminded to read the instructions carefully when casting their vote to ensure it counts. As a security measure, people voting by post must fill in an accompanying form with their signature and date of birth. These are then matched against the signature and date of birth the voter provided when they applied for a postal vote.

A spokesman for the returning officer said: "Postal voting is an increasingly popular way to vote. We want to make sure everybody's vote counts so we'd encourage people to send their completed postal votes back as soon as possible. Leaving it to the last minute runs the risk of us not receiving it in time.

"At every election some postal votes are declared invalid because the voter either forgot to sign the postal voting statement or wrote down the date on which they filled it in rather than their date of birth. Completing your form is simple, but anyone can make a mistake so voters are encouraged to read the instructions carefully."

Anyone who will be voting in person and is on the electoral register should already have received a poll card with details of their polling station, which will be open between 7am and 10pm on Thursday 5 May.