Poll upset feared as postal votes vanish

Last night, Leeds City Council issued a statement calling upon residents who were still waiting for postal ballot forms to contact them.

Voters are due to go to the polls tomorrow to vote in the local elections and mayoral referendum in Leeds but a question mark has arisen over the delivery of as many as 2,167 postal votes.

The ballots were in the final batch due to be delivered by printers to Royal Mail for first class despatch on April 23.

Leeds City Council confirmed that it has started an investigation into what had happened to the packs after receiving calls from 90 people to say they had not arrived.

The city’s returning officer, Tom Riordan said: “It is unfortunate that out of nearly 100,000 postal packs that this number appear to have been mislaid.

“I am satisfied that the council did everything it should to ensure that the ballot packs were ready and issued in plenty of time.

“We are making special arrangements to ensure everyone who registered to vote by post is able to do so.

“We urge people to contact us if their pack has not arrived.”

Mr Riordan added: “It will not be possible for people to vote twice, since if a request is received to re-issue a pack the original pack is cancelled.

“If the original is returned it would be rejected during verification of the votes.”

Replacement ballot packs cannot be re-delivered by post as regulations state that if electors do not receive their postal votes they must provide proof of identity to receive replacements.

Anyone who is still waiting for a ballot pack can call the council on 0113 222 4411 to arrange to collect a replacement from the elections office at Leeds Town Hall on The Headrow.

The office will be open until 8pm for people who cannot get there earlier.