Work underway to encourage postal votes and make polls safe for Daventry elections

Local elections are scheduled to take place on Thursday May 6 after they were postponed last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The 2021 vote will see members of the public in Daventry cast votes for the new West Northamptonshire Council – which will replace the outgoing Daventry District Council.

The recent election in the United States of America saw a larger proportion of people cast postal votes. And Labour councillor Ken Ritchie questioned what Daventry District Council was doing to encourage mail ballots.

Asking a question to the Conservative council leader Richard Auger last Thursday (December 3), Councillor Ritchie said: “We all hope that by May of next year that the pandemic, if not over, will at least be under control. Nevertheless for some a visit to a polling station may still be a real or a perceived health risk. Does the leader therefore accept the case for encouraging more people to vote by post and will he ask officers to make postal voting a prominent part of their campaign to promote participation in the elections on May 6?”

Councillor Auger responded that voters were already being encouraged to apply for postal votes to help the election ‘run as smoothly as possible’. He said literature would be included in the latest edition of Daventry Calling, and that a communications plan was being drawn up in conjunction with Northampton and South Northamptonshire, the other councils that will also be replaced and effectively merged into the new unitary.

Councillor Auger said: “Work is underway to ensure that the residents can cast their votes safely during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, with a range of COVID safe measures being planned for polling stations alongside the other usual options to apply to vote by post or by proxy.

“On a party political note, certainly the Conservative party are encouraging people to vote by post and I’m sure the other parties will do the same in their literature. I think that may help deal with possible gatherings at polling stations.”

Councillor Ritchie said he was ‘reassured’ with the answer, but also urged the council to make clear the differences in how residents will cast their votes this year for the new unitary.

This year, instead of electing one member for their ward, the new unitary will see three councillors elected for each of the 31 new wards across West Northants. Highlighting this was something that Councillor Auger agreed he wanted to be made ‘crystal clear’ to voters.

It will be the first local election since a third of the district council’s seats were up for grabs in 2018.