UK Royal Mail to make extra ballot delivery

An extra delivery of completed postal ballot papers will be made to polling centres on the evening of June 10, election day, says Royal Mail. As ministers insisted the all-postal voting trials in four regions remained on track, Royal Mail said it had delivered all the ballot papers it had received from councils, about 95 per cent of the 14m due to be printed. It was unclear when the remaining 5 per cent would arrive at Royal Mail’s offices but it said it was ready to deliver them when they did. Printing problems and delays have shaken con-fidence in the trials in the north-west, the north-east, Yorkshire and Humber and the east Midlands. The Association of Electoral Administrators said the timescale of the trials had proved “hugely ambitious” and would be seeking urgent talks with the Electoral Commission.

Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader, said the trials had proved a “democratic disgrace” but Lord Falconer, the constitutional affairs secretary, said they would be “something of a success”. Royal Mail is now under pressure not just to make the trials work but restore confidence in the group following a decline in service quality and worries about security. Many postmen and women worked over the bank holiday weekend to sort and deliver ballot papers. But Royal Mail said it still recommended voters post their papers by June 8. The votes will not be treated as priority mail but on election day managers will check all 73 main mail centres for remaining papers. These will be driven to voting centres before the polls close at 10pm. In the north-east, where Newcastle, Gateshead, North and South Tyneside councils had encountered printing delays, deliveries had been “in a mess”, said John Woodhouse, Newcastle area branch secretary for the Communication Workers Union. Complaints had “gone through the roof” since a single daily delivery system began.