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As the election campaign draws to a close, some in York have been denied a say due to late delivery of postal votes.
Several residents have contacted YorkMix to say they registered for a postal vote well before the deadline – but their ballot papers didn’t arrive before they left to go on holiday.
Meanwhile, City of York Council have had to correct a mistake on more than 3,000 polling cards.
One York voter told us that they are now out of the country and had not received their postal vote before they left for their break.
“I did everything right, registering in plenty of time. But nothing had arrived by the time we had to leave at the weekend.
“It makes a joke out of democracy.”
Ian Floyd, York acting returning officer, said: “We are aware that some postal votes hadn’t arrived over the weekend, due to delays with delivery that are being seen across the country.
“Whilst we don’t have exact figures on how many people have potentially been affected by these delays, we believe this number to be relatively low and to date we have received around 70% of all postal votes, which is on track with what we would normally expect.
“We want to reassure residents that we are doing everything we can to make sure as many people as possible can cast their vote, and our teams are continuing to work hard to support those that are getting in touch.
“We were in contact with Royal Mail on Saturday, and they advised that all remaining packs should arrive on doorsteps by Monday 1 July. We understand from electors that this delivery has happened.”
He said the council is still able to reissue postal votes to voters at West Offices, and can do so up until 5pm on 4 July. You can contact them on 01904 551007 or [email protected].
In a statement issued yesterday (Tuesday), a spokesperson for Royal Mail said: “We have no backlog of postal votes and, whilst we are not complacent, we remain confident that postal votes handed to us on time will be delivered prior to polling day.
“Where specific concerns have been raised, we have investigated and confirmed ballot packs are being delivered as soon as they arrive in our network.”
‘It’s a shambles’
Meanwhile it has emerged that there was a key mistake on 3,097 polling cards sent out to voters in York.
They were all marked with the wrong constituency – so voters in York Central got polling cards marked with York Outer, and vice versa.
The mistake appears to have happened due to several districts in the city being moved from one constituency to the other during the recent boundary review. This was not picked up by City of York Council’s systems used to print the cards, and they were marked with the wrong constituency name.
New polling cards have had to be printed and sent out to affected voters. And replacement postal vote packs for 172 postal voters affected by the problem were delivered.
Mr Floyd said: “The issue regarding a number of incorrect polling cards followed a change in ward boundaries.
“This issue was picked up a number of weeks ago and was quickly resolved. Replacement cards were sent out with the correct information and there was no impact on postal votes.”
One York councillor reacted angrily about the issues. Darryl Smalley, the Lib Dem for Rawcliffe and Clifton Without, said on X: “City of York Council cannot be trusted to fulfil the democratic process.
“In this GE, some postal votes haven’t arrived and 3,097 York electors received a polling card with the wrong constituency on.
“2023, duplicate postal votes were sent out. 2019, they lost marked registers.
“After almost every election we complain – nothing changes. It’s a shambles.”
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