Royal Mail blamed for postal vote chaos as thousands fail to receive ballots ahead of General Election

2 July 2024, 03:34 | Updated: 2 July 2024, 09:12

Royal Mail has been blamed for postal vote chaos as thousands of constituents are still yet to receive ballots ahead of the General Election.

Extra staff are said to have been called in as Royal Mail scrambles to get ballots counted ahead of the general election - with them needing to reach counts before polls close at 10pm on Thursday.

It comes after senior election officials warned as early as last year that there would be added pressure due to an increased demand in postal voting.

Voters across more than 90 constituencies have shared their concern over the delays, according to the Telegraph.

There are several factors said to be causing the problem, including a short turnaround time for processing applications, problems with printers and issues with Royal Mail deliveries.

Delays could result in some people not being able to cast their ballot if they are not returned on time or never received.

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Postal affairs minister Kevin Hollinrake hit out at Royal Mail for not being more prepared for the increased demand.

"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," he told the paper.

"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 continued: "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."

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Mr Hollinrake said problems in his own constituency of Thirsk and Malton had been flagged.

Several Cabinet ministers, including Kemi Badenoch, Grant Shapps and James Cleverly, have also had constituents raise concerns over delays.

Mr Cleverly told the paper: "What I would say to people is that, if they haven’t received their postal ballot, if they’re expecting one, to get in contact with their local authority, to really chase this up.

"Everyone should have the right to vote, and people should look to exercise their democratic right."

However, Downing Street has played down the issue, with Rishi Sunak's official spokesman saying on Monday that they were “aware of some concerns” but insisted it would not impact results in marginal seats.

A Royal Mail spokesman said a specialist elections team had been put in place to ensure all ballots were received in time.

"We have no backlog of postal votes," they said. "Where concerns have been raised, we have investigated and confirmed ballot packs are being delivered as soon as they arrive in our network."

A Local Government Association spokesman said: "Councils and electoral staff across the country have been doing their utmost to ensure the smooth running of this election and that people can vote.

"People voting by post are expected to have increased 20 per cent since the 2019 General elections, with more than 1.3 million postal vote applications made between 22 May and 19 June.

"This unprecedented increase adds more pressure to an already complex process and overburdened system.

"We are aware of reports of incidents where delays have happened. The postal vote system could benefit from review and more could be done to support Royal Mail and printers to be ready to deliver elections."