Residents encouraged to return postal ballots in good time
26 Apr 2021 ARCHIVED (over 3 months old) - view latest news
With Local Government and Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Elections taking place on May 6, postal ballots are now being delivered to all registered postal voters.
Residents are being encouraged to complete and return their ballot as soon as possible if they are already sure of who they wish to vote for.
Northumberland County Council’s election team must open, verify and count tens of thousands of postal ballots for this election, which is a time-consuming process, so early returns will be helpful to save a last-minute rush.
The postal ballots will be issued in two batches, the first batch of 137,000 postal ballots has been delivered; The second batch will be delivered on the week commencing April 26.
The local elections will give voters a real opportunity to influence what happens in their community by selecting their local council representatives for the next four years.
Northumberland County Councillors are there to represent the views and opinions of local people and are a voice and a leader for their local community. They help decide how the county council should carry out its various functions and how multi-million-pound budgets are spent.
In some communities, parish and town council elections will also be taking place.
On the same day, residents will also be able to vote for who they would like to be the next Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) for the Northumbria police area. PCCs oversee how crime is tackled in the local police force area; Their aim is to cut crime and to ensure the police force is effective.
Kelly Angus, Returning Officer and Deputy Chief Executive of Northumberland County Council said:
“It’s really important that people take part in the democratic process despite the pandemic.
“While polling stations will be open as normal on 6 May, albeit with social distancing and other covid safety measure in place, many people have chosen to vote by postal ballot at this election.
“It will help our election staff enormously if these postal ballots are returned in the pre-paid envelope, as soon as the voter has chosen the candidates they wish to vote for.”