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01/11/2012 Two Candidates for Police Election

Most households will have a leaflet through their door telling them about the Police and Crime Commissioner Election for the North Yorkshire Police Area, which is to be held on 15th November. The leaflet told you how the ballot paper will look and showed one with two columns to mark.

That will not be the case in Craven and the rest of the North Yorkshire Police Area because there are just two candidates at the election. This means that there will be only one column to complete on the ballot paper, which is how it is in most of our elections. You are asked to choose which of the two candidates you want to vote for and mark your X against that name. This is the same process for both postal ballot papers and for voting at the polling station.

There are around 45,000 voters at this election, of whom around 7,500 have chosen to vote by post, which is more than 16%. Postal vote packs should be arriving through letterboxes by no later than Friday 9th November. Anyone who hasn't got their pack by 10th November should contact the Local Returning Officer.

There have long been concerns about postal voting, so the security measures are in place to try and stop cheats. All postal voters, except those with a chronic disability, have given their signature and date of birth. These are called personal identifiers and they are kept securely by the Local Returning Officer. He will compare them with those that are returned on the Postal Voting Statements.

Postal voters should place the marked ballot paper in the envelope provided. After they have entered their date of birth and signature on the postal voting statement, they should then return everything to the Local Returning Officer in the envelope provided.

Colin Iveson, the Local Returning Officer for Craven said

"It's important that postal votes get to the people they belong to. As soon as you receive yours, please complete the ballot papers and postal voting statement and return them in the envelope provided. Please remember that any statements are returned without the signature and date of birth, or with a signature or date that don't match what we hold, may not be counted.

It is essential that postal voters remember to enter their date of birth and their own signature on the Postal Voting Statement.