Postal votes cost

Question

We have elections coming up and the chair has asked local voters not to use postal votes unless they have to.
He maintains that the cost of every postal vote has to be at least partly borne by the parish council, because the principal authority (which organises such applications) passes on the labour-cost to the parish - and so it would be cheaper for the council if local electors attended the polling station in person instead.
Is this true?  Does each postal vote imply a cost for the parish council?

Answer 1

Probably depends on your principal authority but ours recharges the cost of an election to parishes at a flat (pre-notified) rate regardless of how or the mechanism used for voting.  Uncontested elections generate a flat rate charge and contested elections a similar flat rate but otherwise larger charge.  Whether you use a postal vote or not is irrelevant.
Your chairman would be better reminding people of the need for voter ID in the coming elections (which, incidentally, postal voters don't need) and telling people how to obtain a Voter Certificate if they don't have anything suitable.

Comments

Thanks.  The costs do matter - because the principal authority charges us £1500 per election (unless there is more than one election occurring at the time) - for a parish that only has 350 houses (with a precept of £9000, which on a per-head basis, is average for the region).
The principal authority has doubled their charges in the last few years, and smaller councils are really annoyed by that.
I will approach the principal authority for a breakdown of their election charges, but they have been coy about break-downs (which might reveal costs associated with postal votes).

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The only specific reference I've been able to find is at Wiltshire's website.  They are quite clear that they charge a commercial rate for labour & materials for postal votes - https://cms.wiltshire.gov.uk/documents/s184671/Appendix%20A%20for%20Town%20and%20Parish%20Council%20four-yearly%20election%20cycle%20costs.pdf

Answer 2

You’d think after all this time I’d have seen it all and now this pops up
Your Chairman should keep his mouth shut as it’s up to the electorate how they vote
When I stood many years ago I had a Councillor on my front doorstep complaining about how much I was costing
Do you even know if you are having a vote as it very rarely happens at Parish level

Answer 3

The only way to be really sure is to ask the Principal Authority for a breakdown of their charges but I think the PC chair is wrong about this, and wrong to dictate to people how they choose to deploy their vote.   I have worked as a count assistant for a range of election types and the additional Labour costs for processing postal votes would not be any higher for non parished areas, except for the fact that two ballot papers instead of one would have to be inserted into the envelope posted to the electors address.

Answer 4

This is discriminatory and your chairman needs to reflect on that.  The conduct of elections is nothing to do with the chairman and he would be well advised to keep out of it - particularly with ridiculous actions such as this.

Comments

Perhaps the chairman believes that it is easier to influence how electors vote if they feel they have to attend their local poling station in person rather than opting for casting a postal vote in the privacy of their own homes.
I remember one election I was present at not so long ago where a number of workers from a local business were not prepared to go out to vote and be seen in public because they were convinced that their boss would know who they had voted for. Even when assured that could never be the cast, they remained absolutely sure that it might affect the tenure on their tied accommodation if they cast their vote in the wrong direction - politically and individually.