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More than 2,600 postal votes in one area in a part of a constituency that fall outside of the council area are delayed, with the returning officer telling LGC that there was “insufficient” oversight of the process.
Peter Holt, chief executive of Uttlesford DC, said that “human error on our part” had led to more than 2,600 postal votes being sent out nine days late.
Mr Holt, who is also the returning officer for North West Essex, said the issue had affected postal votes in the quarter of the constituency that overlaps with Chelmsford City Council’s boundaries, rather than his own council’s.
The size of this overlap has increased from two to four council wards at this election due to constituency boundary changes. But Mr Holt said the overlap “is not a new issue for us” and the current issue “hasn’t happened before”.
The council is currently hand delivering ballots to try and address the issue. But Mr Holt admitted that there would be some people who don’t receive their postal votes in time, “as there are [in] every constituency for every election”.
He said that such delays are “a common issue” but admitted that this was “a larger issue for us” for this week’s election.
Mr Holt took responsibility for the issue, which he said arose because of some postal votes not being printed and posted for the area in question.
“We commissioned the printers to print all the routine postal votes,” he explained. “We failed to spot that these 2,644 have not been printed and posted. When postal votes get printed, they get posted out by the printers. And we oversee that process. We oversaw it insufficiently.”
Mr Holt commented: “I am mortified by this. We do accept responsibility…It’s not a Royal Mail issue.”
But he downplayed his comments made to the BBC last week that he needed to consider his position due to the fiasco.
He said: “I would be doing that in the sense of, I would be considering my position, yes. But I’m not at the moment because I’m concentrating on dealing with the issue.”
London borough in discussions with Royal Mail
In London, Southwark LBC said it was in discussions with the Royal Mail about reported delays to postal votes. A council spokesperson said that all of the 50,518 postal vote papers it had processed “were despatched within sufficient time for delivery by the Royal Mail”.
“We understand there have been some delays in the delivery of some ballot papers in the SE22 and other areas, and we have raised this at a senior level with the Royal Mail,” said the spokesperson. “They have stated they are confident they will be able to deliver all outstanding ballot papers in time for recipients to vote in the general election. We will continue to monitor the situation closely.”
LGC has approached the Royal Mail for comment.
Delays are occurring in many parts of Scotland – where postal votes constitute more than a quarter of the electorate.
Edinburgh City Council set up an emergency facility for lost and delayed postal votes last weekend. Paul Lawrence, the council’s chief executive and Edinburgh’s returning officer, said that concerns of voters had prompted the decision “to put in extra resources and open the City Chambers”.
Similarly, Fife Council opened its offices on Saturday to allow people to have their voting packs reissued or hand them in.
Malcolm Burr, the convener of the Electoral Management Board (EMB) for Scotland, said last week that “there have been many difficulties experienced with the delivery of postal votes at this election”.
He added that for postal voting to be a “viable option”, returning officers “must rely on print suppliers and a predictable and reliable service from Royal Mail”.
“There have been and remain issues with both suppliers and with Royal Mail across Scotland which the electoral community are dealing with as best we can.”
Mr Burr said the EMB believes “there is a need for a major review of capacity and systems after the election,” adding “that view is shared across the electoral community.”
In a statement last week, the Association of Electoral Administrators (AEA) agreed that “the current postal voting system needs review and improvement”.
It said “earlier deadlines for absent voting applications would better meet electors’ needs”.
The AEA expects more than 10 million postal votes at this election, a 20% increase from the 2019 general election.
It said that “with a short timetable – plus print and delivery suppliers working at capacity – demand is overloading the system”.
“Printing postal votes is a complicated process,” added the AEA. “Personalised postal vote statements must be matched with the correct ballot paper, personalised envelopes and instruction sheets. Election teams also need to carry out security checks adding to the time needed to prepare and send ballot papers out.”
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