Hundreds of postal votes missing

The council said it would courier papers in exceptional circumstances

Hundreds of people in Cornwall are still without postal vote papers for elections on Thursday.

The papers should have been sent out on 22 May for the local and European elections.

But 300 people have called Cornwall Council to say they have not received their papers. Other papers have omitted some candidates' names.

The council said it was dealing with the problems which were due to errors by a printing firm.

'Let down'

The council said it would even courier ballots to people in "exceptional circumstances".

The local election will be the first since the new Cornwall Council unitary authority was formed on 1 April.

But the issue of postal voting has been hit by a series of problems.

Last month, the council was forced to put out another print run of ballot papers when it emerged that the names of some candidates in eight wards were missing.

The affected wards included: St Newlyn East and Goonhavern, Penzance Promenade, Penzance Central, Poundstock, St Ives North, St Ives South and Padstow.

However, another ward has also been found to have ballot problems.

Cornwall Council said that a number of incorrect postal ballots had been sent out to voters in Ludgvan, bringing the number of wards affected by difficulties up to nine.

The council also admitted that 300 people had called a council hotline saying they had not received postal ballot papers.

Norfolk delivery

Council chief executive Kevin Lavery said: "We got the paperwork to the printers on time and we are very disappointed and we feel let down."

"We have 410,000 voters, 63,000 postal voters and we have a problem with printing of 300 postal ballots.

"We can solve that problem but we take the matter very seriously and we are doing everything we can to fix it."

He said some papers were still in the post, but any that did not arrive in the post could be delivered by courier on the day.

Carolyn Trickey in Penryn asked for a postal vote because she will be in Norfolk.

She said: "I have been informed that they will courier our postal vote to us in Norfolk."

Carolyn Pinney and her husband, John, applied for a postal vote three weeks ago, but have still not received them.

"We rang the council last Friday, but got no satisfaction," she said.

"I have rung again and would like someone to tell me why I haven't got my postal vote.

"If the vote comes down to 10 people, the lost votes could make the difference."

Anyone with queries or concerns about postal voting is being asked to call the council's hotline on: 0300 1234 200.