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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