Today's the deadline for Postal vote applications

If you want to vote by post in the London elections on May 1st then 5pm today is the deadline for applications to be in with the town hall.

There are already almost 7,000 postal voters in the Putney constituency, with at least 1,000 more expected once the deadline has passed.

The Government has acted to make postal voting more secure this year: nowadays every postal vote applicant needs to provide their signature and date of birth on their application form; and the same information alongside their ballot papers.

When postal votes are opened, the signature and date of birth are checked against the application form to make sure they match. Postal ballot papers are also only sent to the address the applicant is registered to vote at unless they can give a good reason why they want their vote sent elsewhere (if they've just moved house, for example).

These measures should go a long way to reassuring everyone that voting by post is safe and secure. I support postal voting on demand because it's been the only electoral innovation that has consistently increased legitimate voter participation in elections. There have been academic studies that show that the further one lives from a polling station the lower the likelihood we are to vote.

If you miss the postal vote application deadline but can't vote in person on Thursday 01 May, don't worry - there's still another week to apply for a proxy vote - that is, someone you appoint to vote on your behalf for this one election. The deadline for these applications is Wednesday 23 April - but unlike postal votes, you need to give a specific reason as to why you want a Proxy vote (and you also need to identify who you want to vote on your behalf).