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97-year-old had never missed a poll Voters denied by postal ballot blunder
Chris Benfield and Kate O'Hara SHE has lived for almost a century and had never missed a vote in her life, but on Thursday 97-year-old Annie Morrisoe was turned away from a polling station because of a postal vote blunder.
Last night Mrs Morrisoe, from Leeds, told the Yorkshire Post she was "mortified" to have been disenfranchised in what she believes may have been her last General Election.
"When we didn't get our postal vote forms through we were told we would be able to go down to the polling station and vote.
"I've been very ill but I got out of bed specially. When they told us we couldn't vote I was absolutely mortified.
"I was born in this district and I've lived here all my life, and in 97 years I've never missed a vote. Perhaps this was my last chance," she said.
Election officials told Mrs Morrisoe and her family, who live on Queenswood Drive, Headingley, that because they were registered for a postal vote, they would not be able to vote at the ballot box.
Mrs Morrisoe was born near St Matthias Church on Burley Road in Leeds in 1908.
She has proudly voted Labour ever since she turned 21 and became eligible to vote back in 1929 when Labour's James Ramsay MacDonald was the country's leader.
Since then she has watched great Prime Ministers come and go, from Sir Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain during the Second World War, through to memorable leaders in more recent years, from Harold Wilson to Margaret Thatcher.
Until this week she had registered a vote in each and every one of them.
Last night Mrs Morrisoe's MP John Battle said mistakes had deprived at least 200 people in his constituency of a vote – and the rise in applications for postal votes was only part of a bigger problem.
In Mrs Morrisoe's home alone three people lost their right to vote – her daughter, Mary Collins, 61, and grandson, Michael Collins, in his 30s, also missed out.
They had all applied for postal votes but never got the forms and when they tried to phone the elections office in Leeds they couldn't get through. When they turned up at the polling station, they were told they had already been crossed off the list as postal voters
The Yorkshire Post found another five people with similar complaints in the same road, although they were all on the electoral register, and they all knew of others who were affected.
Mr Battle, MP for Leeds West, said he and his agent had been dealing with administrative errors all through the election.
Some voters had been sent envelopes with no ballot papers in them, some were sent voting papers with the wrong polling station information while others had been told their applications for postal votes had not been received – including couples where one partner received a ballot paper and the other did not.
Mr Battle said: "People do get confused and there are always problems. But I have never known so many things go wrong. I know of at least 200 people who would have voted but couldn't and if this was a marginal constituency, we could be involved in a major inquiry now.
"If people write to me, care of the House of Commons, I will demand answers. It wasn't just a postal votes problem. The whole system needs attention."
In Leeds North East, Conservative agent Chris Ingleby, agreed about the scale of the problem.
But he said: "I do blame the postal voting. I think it created a situation beyond the resources of the election office. I wouldn't think it was only in Leeds."
A spokeswoman for the Leeds returning officer said: "Poll cards for every registered elector in Leeds were printed and supplied to Royal Mail.
"As regards postal ballot packs, almost 70,000 of these were supplied to the Royal Mail. Complaints were made that some of these had not been received and around 200 packs were reissued.
"With respect to ballot papers, more than 500,000 were printed for Leeds constituencies and of more than 300,000 issued to the city's electors, we are aware of only 21 that were invalid."
Royal Mail said it had investigated complaints from Queenswood Drive, Leeds, and did not believe it was responsible.
chris.benfield@ypn.co.uk
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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