VOTERS IN ELGIN City North who have chosen to cast their votes by post should receive their ballot packs on Saturday.

There will be over 1830 postal votes issued on Friday to everyone who successfully applied by Friday, June 23 – representing an increase of 3.2% over those who chose this method at the council elections in May.

Deadline for postal vote applications was 5pm today (Wednesday) and for those who successfully applied to that deadline will see their ballot packs arrive early next week.

Postal voters are reminded to following the instructions contained within their ballot pack and return their completed ballot paper promptly. Those who will be away on polling day – Thursday, July 13 – still have time to apply for a proxy vote. To do so they need to contact the electoral registration office and apply by Wednesday, July 5.

Seven polling stations will be in operation at four polling places – Bishopmill Hall, Seafield Primary School, Williamson Hall and the Elgin Community Church.

The by-election is being contested by four candidates – Patsy Gowans (SNP), Maria McLean (Scottish Conservative), Terry Monaghan (Independent) and Nick Taylor (Scottish Labour).

insideMORAY will be conducting set interviews with all four candidates plus a chat with Moray’s recently elected MP Douglas Ross for a pilot weekly radio show that is to launch soon on Wave Radio and streamed through our own community news site a week before the by-election.

The pilot is part of a joint initiative by the Dr Gray’s Hospital based service and insideMORAY that will launch a weekly news show each Friday from the start of August.