I have a postal vote that I wanted to cancel.

I normally vote by post to ensure I can get my vote in as I cannot guarantee to get to the polling station on polling day. At the election on 6th May I will be in the constituency so I will be able to vote. So I thought I would do the decent thing and cancel my postal vote and go and vote in person.

I went to the HDC website and looked up the Electoral Services section. Under How to Vote I found the following information:

I found the cut off date was 20th April 2010. So I thought I had better contact HDC. I therefore went to the contact electoral services section.

I therefore clicked on the link and I was taken to the next page.

Click on picture to enlarge

Being informed on the link that I was contacting electoral services. The web address seemed to confirm this.

So I filled in the form asking for a form to cancel my Postal Vote. I informed them of who I am and my address. I then pressed "Submit Feedback" and I received an email informing me of the following:

from Huntingdonshire District Council  date 13 April 2010 19:14 subject Contact Us

hide details 13 Apr

Thank you for your email to Huntingdonshire District Council. It will now be handled by the appropriate department and you will receive an email reply within 2 working days. If you need to speak to someone more urgently please phone the Council on 01480 388388  www.huntingdonshire.gov.uk

Now I find my email will be handled by the appropriate department? Err...I though I was contacting Electoral Services! But that is OK as I will receive a reply within 2 days - that makes it 15th April 2010.

On 15th April 2010 I received another email.

HDC Customer Service

10:15

Thank you for your email. In view of the nature of your enquiry this has been passed on to our Elections Department for them to reply. To give them time to fully consider your enquiry you should receive a response by Thursday 29th April (10 working days from today).

If you would like to contact us again about this matter please click 'Reply to' when responding.

Yours sincerely,

Joanna Haywood

Customer Service Advisor

Customer Services

Huntingdonshire District Council

01480 388388

Hold on there! I was contacting Electoral Services. I was informed I would receive an email in 2 days. Now, I'm being informed that I have to wait for up to 10 working days (29th April 2010) as the email is being passed onto the Elections Department. I thought I was contacting this very department IN THE FIRST PLACE. The cut off date is 20th April 2010.

I had a choice. I could either get in touch with HDC or I'll see how this plays out. I decided to see how this plays out.