General Election Special

A quick briefing on the new constituency and how you can vote

The General Election has, finally, being called and it’s been held on Thursday, 4th July. It’s a short campaign and there’s things you may want to know if you’re intending to vote so a quick post out of the normal run of things.

Our constituency

For us here in Nairnshire we are no longer in the same constituency as Inverness; instead we are now part of the new constituency of Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey as show on the map below.

It’s a vast area with most of the population living along the Moray coast in Nairn, Forres, and Elgin but it also runs south west following the Spey down as far as Dalwhinnie taking in communities like Charlestown of Aberlour, Grantown-on-Spey, and Aviemore.

Our current MP Drew Hendry, is standing in the new Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire constituency. I think he’s been a good local MP for us, regardless of which party you support. I’ve certainly been very happy with the help he gave me with a problem I had long before I became a councillor and I know from canvassing for him at the last election that a lot of people had help from him and his team, so he’s a sad loss.

In his place the SNP are putting forward Graham Leadbitter. He, like Drew before him, is a local councillor and has lead his council - in his case Moray rather than Highland - so he’s lots of experience with local casework and has been spending a lot of time over the last few months getting to know “our” end of the constituency.

He’s also a nice guy and I think he’ll be an excellent replacement for Drew but whoever you choose to vote for the important thing is that you vote for someone, and this brings me on to the important things you need to know.

Registering to vote

Firstly if you want to vote then you need to be on the electoral register. You probably are already but if not you still have time to do so and you can do it online here.

Photo ID

As this is a Westminster election you will need photo ID if you’re going to vote in person (as Boris Johnson forgot when he went to vote). There’s a complete list of valid types of photo ID here but for most people the obvious ones are driving licence, Scottish National Entitlement Card, passport, or older or disabled person’s bus pass (but not a young person’s bus pass). The photo on your ID must look like you. You can still use your ID even if it has expired.

Getting a postal vote

As ever with Westminster no thought has been given to the people of Scotland where 4th July is in the school holidays and so lots of people will be away. If that’s you and you want to vote then you need to apply, now, for a postal vote. It’s easy enough to do online here. You don’t need photo ID with a postal vote.