EXCLUSIVE: Croydon election officials worry that thousands of voters won’t be able to use their postal ballots before the July 4 deadline because of issues with Royal Mail. By STEVEN DOWNES
Senior council officials in charge of overseeing this week’s vote count across three Croydon parliamentary constituencies in the General Election have admitted that they have “concerns” over the relatively low number of postal votes that have been returned so far, with a real possibility that tens of thousands of voters will be denied their democratic right due to the latest instance of poor service from Royal Mail.
Late delivery: postal problems are now impacting voters’ rights in Croydon, and across the country
An investigation into the reasons for the delays is underway.
Inside Croydon has seen an email sent out to candidates last night from Seth Aker, Croydon’s head of democratic services, with Katherine Kerswell, the council CEO and the Returning Officer for the elections, copied in to the message.
Aker refers to “coverage in the media regarding voters not receiving postal votes from Royal Mail across London”.
And he writes, “We also have some concerns regarding the rate postal votes are being returned compared to levels we have received at this stage in previous elections.”
By last night, according to council sources, only 50% of Croydon’s dispatched postal votes had been returned.
In his email, Aker wrote, “We are concerned by this, as we would have expected a higher response at this stage.”
The issue of voters not receiving their postal vote packages has been reported across the country. The snap election, being called in the summer, has seen voters opting to use the postal vote system as they head off on holiday this week (schools in Scotland, for example, broke up for the long summer holiday last Friday).
Anecdotally, Inside Croydon has been aware of some postal voters questioning a delay in their receiving their voting package from Croydon Council. Delays could result in some people not being able to cast their ballot if they are not returned on time – by 10pm on Thursday, July 4 – or never received.
Royal Mail has called in extra staff as it scrambles to deal with delivery backlogs. According to national media reports, almost 100 constituencies – more than 15% – have raised the alarm over postal delays.
In Croydon, around 47,000 people are registered to cast their votes by post. According to the council’s own figures, the vast majority, 42,000, had their voting packages despatched to them on Monday, June 17. Some, though – around 3,000 – had their voting forms and envelopes sent out as late as last Thursday, June 27.
“The final dispatch was slightly later than we had planned,” Aker admits in his email.
On the cards: some postal voters have received their ballot cards, but not the essential voting package
“This was caused by delays in the production of the postal vote packs by our print contractors. But they were all dispatched first class with enough time to return them to us before the day of election.”
Kevin Hollinrake, the postal affairs minister, has criticised Royal Mail for not being more prepared for the increased demand caused by the election.
“We urge Royal Mail to do all they can to make sure that postal votes get to the right people at the right time, and time is completely of the essence now,” Hollinrake told the Daily Torygraph.
“There’s a resourcing issue. They have recruited extra people and I welcome that but they’ve got to make sure they’ve got the right number of people to deliver the mail at busy times like this.
“It’s not acceptable it’s sat in sorting offices. It needs to be delivered to people’s houses. So they need to put more people on to do that.
“I don’t think there’s an issue here other than Royal Mail being competent and fulfilling their obligations.
“If people want to choose to vote by post, that’s perfectly fine. In my view, certainly from a logistical point of view, that should be something that’s available to anyone who wants to do that.”
And of course, if there’s delays in members of the public in receiving their voting packages from their local authorities, caused by postal delays, then it is equally possible that went they return their votes, the slow post could prevent those ballots being received by the authorities in good time.
In Aker’s email last night, he wrote that Croydon had begun to re-issue postal votes last week in cases where they had been lost or just never received. “Electoral Services staff worked over the weekend to ensure that postal votes were reissued and collected or dispatched as quickly as possible.
“When we re-issue a postal vote we can either send it 1st class again, or voters can come to Bernard Weatherill House to collect it.
“Any voter who requests a reissued postal vote is being advised that Electoral Services staff will be available outside normal office hours so they can collect their postal vote.”
Voters – armed with the now-essential photo ID – were able to collect their postal votes up to 9.30pm last night and will again be able to do so tonight, and until 6pm on Wednesday. The deadline to re-issue postal votes is 5pm on July 4, election day.
“We have also set up polling booths in the Corporate Reception so that voters are able complete their postal vote in privacy and hand it in immediately,” Aker wrote.
Non-returning officer: council chief executive, Katherine Kerswell
“We strongly recommend that voters contact us first so that we can advise them of the process, and also prepare their re-issued postal vote in advance so the process is as quick as possible.”
Voters can email electoral.services@croydon.gov.uk or phone 0300 373 0595.
Voters are able to hand in completed postal votes either at Croydon Town Hall or at one of the polling stations on polling day.
Aker wrote last night, “Because we are expecting lots of postal votes to be handed in on polling day, we will be doing extra collections of postal votes from polling stations during the day to reduce the numbers we need to open while the count is taking place.
“Opening and checking postal votes takes time, and we want to avoid large numbers of postal votes effecting the timings of the count. We are also organising additional staff for the postal vote opening team. While we are planning for a high return of postal votes on polling day, we will have a better sense of the volumes on the day.”
This year, the election count is being held on the sixth floor of the council offices at Fisher’s Folly – the £145million glass palace which some still mistakenly refer to as Bernard Weatherill House. Road closures are being put in place on Fell Road and Mint Walk for the night of July 4, so that vans delivering the ballot boxes from polling stations across the borough can drive in off the Croydon Flyover and deposit their precious cargo outside the revolving doors.
Croydon Council is handling the counts for three constituencies – Croydon East, Croydon West and Croydon South. The count for Streatham and Croydon North will be managed by Lambeth Council at Brixton Town Hall.
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
Was this the Tories secret electoral weapon. Outsource an essential democratic service to a privatised company who no longer provide a basic competent service and gerrymander the final vote tally. A bit dumb though even for the Tories as probably most of their votes will come from the elderly using the postal service.
Whether by accident or design, it does appear to be a near-perfect example of how this government of chaos has eroded or destroyed once proud institutions – councils, the Royal Mail – to the point where they can no longer function and provide the services many of us grew up with, taking for granted as part of the fabric of our society.
“That’s the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital.”
— Noam Chomsky
Until this year’s law change, many British citizens who lived abroad had lost their right to vote. This is the first election in which overseas voters recovered, or even gained for the first time, their right to vote in a UK General Election. Most who have successfully registered to vote have had to set up proxy voters or postal votes, and many voting as their proxies may have opted to do so by post. The volume of postal votes may thus be far higher than anticipated, even if Royal Mail had enough staff on duty to handle the usual volume of postal votes. Some overseas voters have arranged to be in the UK on Thursday to vote in person, but they will be a small minority.
I suspect that at this time of year many postal vote requests were because people were going to be away on holiday. If the packs are sent later than planned (Well done Croydon!) then some people will already have gone on holiday.
And that includes my wife. The pack turned up after she had left to go abroad so she can’t vote now. She has missed her chance to put another nail in the Tory coffin!!
A bit of positivity from Streatham and Croydon North, I know of 3 postal votes that all arrived roughly 2 weeks ago and have been returned duely completed. Let’s hope they’ve not been delayed in the post as mine was sent last Friday.
The problem of late postal ballot arrivals seems to be a combination of local authority financial cuts, the post office not being able to send things out reliably and not enough time between the election being called and ballot papers being prepared. I’ve heard someone on the radio saying that they need to be allowed an earlier time to start preparing ballot papers. That will of course mean an earlier date to confirm candidates.
One final thought, should we be looking at electronic voting? As a blind person I’ve never had a secret vote in my life being dependent on family, friends or officers to complete my vote for me.
Electronic voting would be popular with overseas voters! Might not appeal to non-techie voters but might tempt the apathetic to vote being less bother than walking to a polling station.
In a word: Anonyvoter…
I’ve always had mixed feelings about overseas voters. On one hand if you are retired and live in Spain, Cyprus etc. and have done so for 10 years plus why should you be able to vote in a UK election, when someone who has lived here for 10+ years but doesn’t have a British passport can’t? On the other the overseas Brit probably can’t vote in the country in which they are living and have contributed to Britain prior to retiring. I’d probably allow anyone who has British nationality to vote where ever they are and anyone who has lived in Britain for more than 5+ years and intends to carry on living here as well.
I still resent the fact that EU citizens didn’t get to have a vote in the EU referendum. But, that is another subject altogether.
When the Tories changed the law that came into effect this year, it removed a 15-year time limit on the eligibility of expatriates to vote in U.K. elections.
At the time this was estimated to add an estimated 3.5 million people to the electoral roll.
They don’t live here, they don’t work here, they don’t pay taxes here, but they can dictate who gets into power. No doubt the Tories hoped it would boost their chances, but they have got that completely wrong
Not everyone who lives abroad takes the nationality of their host country. They may work abroad for decades in different countries, or may retire from the forces, police force or NHS and pay UK income tax on their pensions while living abroad, perhaps because their spouse comes from the country they have retired to.
Oddly enough, in the case of a UK person who has retired to another country and pays national and local taxes there but can’t vote there, but retains a property in the UK so pays local taxes here but none to the UK government, the only place they can vote is in the UK general election.
The French have at least one MP representing French citizens who live abroad, while the UK has overseas voters all over the world who vote in constituencies in the UK where they lived years ago, possibly having left as children. Those who don’t feel connected to the UK won’t bother to register on the electoral roll, but many have. Those who gave up UK nationality can’t vote in the UK. UK pensioners in many countries have health costs cross-charged to the UK, so do have an interest in how the UK is governed. I’m not saying the current system is ideal, in many cases it’s nonsense, but it is the situation for now.
We are reliably informed, while trying to keep matters strictly within data protection rules, that your name, Diana, appears on the electoral register, but not your postal address. Which might explain the absence of any election material dropping on to your doormat.
It also explains why no candidates or canvassers have been able to visit you.
One candidate, who has read Inside Croydon and your comments, would like to get in touch, if you can, via email, give us permission to pass on your email address.
Is your postal vote administered by Lambeth? That might explain the more prompt receipt of the voting pack.
I’d guess so. But then there are apparently 91 constituencies where this is an issue.
We’ve just had a second leaflet advertising the Green candidate for Croydon East delivered by Royal Mail. A shame, because they’d already delivered one for the Green candidate in Croydon West, and I was hoping we would finally get one for our own constituency to be able to complete the set!
So far, other than mail specifically addressed to us, I don’t think Royal Mail have managed to deliver any election material here for the correct candidates of any party standing in Croydon South, and we’re not even close to the boundary.
If I was a candidate I’d probably be asking Royal Mail for a pretty big refund by now.
Let’s hope they can do a better job of getting the postal votes back to the right places by tomorrow.