COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

Delays force postal service to scramble to get ballot papers to voters – and then back to polling stations in time to be counted – on July 4



Royal Mail has been criticised by the postal minister for failing to deliver votes in time for the general election.

Postal vote delays across the country have forced Royal Mail to scramble to ensure that ballots are counted in time for the general election.

Extra staff are being drafted in to work on election night to make sure that ballots are collected from postal sorting offices and reach counts before polls close at 10pm on Thursday.

The Telegraph has discovered that voters in more than 90 constituencies, including those of Cabinet ministers, have raised concerns about their ballots failing to arrive.

Delayed postal votes can risk some people not being able to cast their ballot if they are not returned on time or if their papers are never received.

It is understood that there are several factors behind the delays, including the short turnaround time for councils to process applications, problems with printers and issues with Royal Mail deliveries.

The crisis is fuelling fears among candidates that delays may cost them election on Thursday.

Kevin Hollinrake, the postal affairs minister, criticised Royal Mail for failing to anticipate the demand, saying: “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.

“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.”

He added: “I don’t think there’s an issue here other than Royal Mail being competent and fulfilling their obligations under the USO [Universal Service Obligation].

“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.”

Mr Hollinrake said that he had been made aware of problems in his own constituency of Thirsk and Malton, where he is defending a majority of 25,154.

A Royal Mail source said: “We’ll be carrying out sweeps at our mail centres and delivery offices to ensure all postal votes in the network are identified and returned to the relevant local authority before the close of poll stations.

“We will also have additional people on the ground in our mail centres on Thursday evening, identifying and pulling postal votes for delivery to local authorities.”

One candidate is already warning that the chaos could cost them their chance of winning.

Royal Mail blames snap election for postal vote delays



Royal Mail has blamed delays to postal votes on Rishi Sunak’s decision to call a snap election.

The company called for a “review into the timetable for future elections”, to make sure that the postal voting system “works as smoothly as possible”.

Mr Sunak said it was “right” that Royal Mail was investigating the concerns around delayed deliveries.

On Monday, The Telegraph revealed that voters in more than 90 constituencies – including those of Cabinet ministers – had raised concerns about their ballots failing to arrive.

Kevin Hollinrake, the postal affairs minister, criticised Royal Mail for not recruiting “the right number of people” to deliver postal votes to those who had applied for them.

However, a source at the postal service told The Telegraph on Tuesday that Mr Sunak’s decision to call the snap election had increased pressure on the supply chain for producing and delivering postal ballots.

In some instances, Royal Mail only received ballots on Saturday – leaving just a few days to deliver them ahead of the vote on Thursday.

The source also pointed to a sharp increase in the number of people choosing to vote by post given the proximity to the summer holiday period.

The increase in applications for postal votes is particularly pronounced in Scotland, where the school term ends earlier than the rest of the UK, meaning some voters had already left the country on holiday before their ballots had arrived. In Edinburgh alone, there has been a 42 per cent increase in applications to vote by post.

Across the UK, 21 per cent of people voted by post in the 2019 general election. The number of people voting by post is expected to increase by more than a million this year.

Despite the increase, a similar timescale has been used for administering postal votes this year as in 2019. Voters were given just under three weeks to apply for a postal vote between the dissolution of Parliament on May 30 and the deadline for applications of June 19.

As in 2019, the gap between the cutoff for applications and polling day is about two weeks.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “We have no backlog of postal votes and, whilst we are not complacent, we remain confident that postal votes handed to us on time will be delivered prior to polling day.

“Where specific concerns have been raised, we have investigated and confirmed ballot packs are being delivered as soon as they arrive in our network.

“We would welcome a review into the timetable for future elections with all stakeholders to ensure that the system for printing and administering postal votes before they are handed to Royal Mail works as smoothly as possible.”

Hitting back at Mr Hollinrake, Royal Mail also indicated that the postal minister had not yet personally raised his concerns with the service despite his public criticism.