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The UK’s postal voting system is facing “pressure” ahead of Thursday’s election, the Electoral Commission has warned, after some ballot deliveries in Scotland and some The southern region of England was delayed.
Several Scottish councils were forced to operate emergency support centres over the weekend for voters who had not received their postal ballot packs, while some areas in London, Essex and Devon also faced delivery delays.
Election CommissionThe UK’s election watchdog said tens of thousands of postal votes had been delivered over the weekend, but admitted there was “pressure on the postal voting system due to the festive season”.
“We are continuing to provide advice and guidance to election services teams to support them during the mail voting process,” the statement added.
Royal letter assert that all problems are not your fault.
“We no longer have a backlog of postal ballots,” the company said. “When concerns were raised, we investigated and confirmed that ballot packages are delivered as soon as they arrive on our network.”
Voters using mail-in voting must return their completed ballots to be received by 10 p.m. Thursday, at the same time the poll ended for in-person voters. Anyone who has not received a ballot can fill out a mail-in ballot in person at the council office by 5 p.m. Thursday.
Peter Stanyon, chief executive of the Electoral Administration Association, said the situation in Scotland had been made worse by delays in printing some ballot papers and complicated by the large number of voters going on summer holidays after school ended last week.
“They used a specific vendor,” he said, referring to the printer that produced the document. “There was a slight delay in printing, a few hours, and that happened.”
He added that there have been a number of “documented” cases where postal ballots have not yet reached registrants.
“The latest information we have is that all postal ballots are in the supply chain and are expected to be delivered by the end of the week,” he said.
Scottish councils including Edinburgh, Borders, Highlands and Fife ran emergency facilities over the weekend for people who needed to fill out postal ballots in person and were preparing to go on holiday.
Edinburgh City Council has received more than 100,000 applications for postal voting in the current general election, a 41% increase in applications on 2019.
In west London, some voters said they had not received their postal ballots over the weekend, more than two weeks after initially requesting them.
Joe Powell, Labor candidate for Kensington and Bayswater, said he had heard first-hand reports of “a few cases” of postal ballots not arriving. Kensington and Chelsea Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Association of Election Administrators says it expects more than 10 million people to request postal ballots in the current general election, a 20% increase from the 2019 general election.
Besides the problems in Scotland, Uttlesford District Council in Essex said it had sent some postal ballots late because of “human error”. The issue affects a number of voters in the North West Essex constituency currently held by Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary.
Council said on Monday that all voters must receive their ballots by Monday and urged voters to return them immediately to ensure they arrive before voting day on Thursday.
There have also been reports of delays in the delivery of postal votes in the area administered by Teignbridge Borough Council, in Devon. The council did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
