There are two days left to complete a major survey on voting rights and habits of British people abroad.
The survey, aimed at adult British nationals overseas, closes on Saturday March 4. It takes between 10 and 20 minutes to complete: click here for the link.
The British in Europe group (BiE), which campaigned on Britons’ rights during the Brexit process, is now focusing on the voting issue and wants to use the survey data to build up a better picture of the UK overseas community and their participation in elections.
The survey includes questions about voting in UK elections and in elections in countries where people live, both in the EU and around the globe.
It comes as the UK government last year passed a law abolishing the ’15-year rule’ which stopped Britons from voting in UK parliamentary elections after 15 years abroad. This was first promised in the Conservative election manifesto for 2015.
However, the government has yet to pass required secondary legislation to allow Britons to re-register to vote.
In its current work, BiE is focusing especially on this issue, including ensuring the process to re-register is as simple as possible.
It is also looking at possible improvements to the process for voting from abroad to address issues such as postal ballots arriving late, and the question of whether the UK should have special overseas constituencies (and MPs) for Britons abroad as France does.
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