Many of those of us with CFS may have requested a postal vote for an election at one time or another when an election and one of those dreaded big CFS crashes came at the same time … But did you know that if you ring up the right person and fill out the right form you – and maybe even your carer – can register to always be a postal voter in all elections. Just think, as long as you’re sick, or caring for somebody who’s sick, you may never need to brave the dreaded ballot box again!
How do you get the form to fill in for all this lovely magic to occur? Just phone the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) on 13 23 26 and request the form to become a general postal voter.
Here’s the technical bit. To be a general postal voter (that’s what it’s called) you have to be able to say that one of a list of statements is true. For people with CFS the statement:
3) I am not a patient in a hospital, but due to serious illness or infirmity I am unable to travel from my residence to a polling place.
is true – I spoke with the AEC person who answered the phone and she said that if a visit to a polling place would be enough to make you sicker or in CFS terms put you into a crash, even for a day or two, that is enough that this category applies to you.
For carers the statement to tick would be:
4) I am an elector who is unable to attend a polling place because I am caring for a seriously ill or infirm person who is not in a hospital.
Having filled in the form all you have to do is post it back (an envelope with stamp is helpfully provided) and in about 10 days you’ll get a statement that says you’re on the list. Then the only tricky bit is remembering to update your address with the AEC every time you move house or your postal vote will go sadly astray. The form to update your address you can get from any post office or by ringing the same number – you use the same form as everybody else does to update your address, there’s no special form needed for general postal voters to change their addresses.
Happy Postal Voting!
Instructions for voting by post in the UK are here.
You can also vote by proxy (i.e. authorise someone to vote on your behalf), which might be useful if you are likely to be in hospital or are otherwise too ill. That is described here.
You need to apply for either in good time; normally, registration is done every autumn. I am not sure if it’s still possible to register for the UK election next month (6th May 2010) for example.
Beware of party workers who try to get other people’s votes by signing them up for postal votes and then switching them to proxy votes, which they then cast themselves. This is known as “granny farming” as elderly people in nursing homes were a common victim in past UK elections (particularly the 1992 general).
@Matthew: Thanks for the helpful instructions! More information is always better