Starting this year you’ll be able to vote in your areas Police and Crime Commissioner elections giving you more of a direct say on how your taxes are spent to keep the streets clean. Despite the fact that we’d probably be inclined to vote for the first Commissioner that suggests investing a healthy amount in bat related crime prevention, we’re taking the election pretty seriously, so here’s a quick run down of how you go about voting if you feel a bit out of the loop like us.
Firstly, the elections take place on the 15th November 2012, so if you’re not already registered to vote, then you need to get a move on. You can now register to vote online at https://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/how_do_i_vote/registering_to_vote.aspx, which includes an online tool with questions followed by getting a downloadable PDF of your completed information that you then send through to your local council. It’s not the most sophisticated process, but it does get the job done.
However, the bad news for Londoners, the Scots and Northern Irish is that the UK elections only relate to the 41 police forces outside of their confines.
Once you’re registered to vote you need to work out who it is that you’re going to vote for. The problem with this is that if you’re anything like us then you’re probably clueless about who’s standing for the role of Police and Crime Commissioner. The good news is that you can use the recently launched Police Elections website to find out more about each of the candidates in your area; just visit, https://www.policeelections.com/.
When you eventually decide on your crime-fighting hero of choice, all that’s left to do is to cast your vote. This can be done in a few ways – post, in person at a polling station (your polling station’s location will be on the poll card that will be delivered to you before polling day) and voting by proxy if you can’t make it to the polling station yourself – you can find out more about each at https://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/how_do_i_vote.aspx.
Though the US style elections put more of the responsibility in the hands of the people, it also opens up the field to woefully inadequate candidates making it through to Commissioner status by winning a popularity contest, so it’s pretty important to do research before casting your vote. If you don’t vote, or you don’t put in the research to make sure the right man gets the job you’ll only have yourself to blame if your local Police and Crime Commissioner is rubbish.
