Apology after postal voting form blunder

VOTERS in Ovington are to be issued with new polling cards after a wrong address was given for those wanting to use a postal vote.
The blunder would have seen people sending their postal vote to Northumberland.
County officers have apologised for the error and say the problem was caused by the printing company that produced the cards.
David Collingwood, Durham County Council’s electoral services manager, said: “We were made aware that a resident in the Ovington area who had requested a postal vote had been issued with a pack containing an envelope with an incorrect return address.
“We contacted the print company responsible for distributing our postal vote packs and were informed that due to an error on its part, the incorrect return envelopes had been sent to all 22 people who had registered for a postal vote in the Ovington area.
“We contacted the candidates standing in the county and parish elections in the area to advise them, and also those postal voters that were affected where we had contact details. We have now written to the affected postal voters explaining the situation and providing them with new packs with correctly address envelopes.
“We’d like to apologise to these residents and can assure them that their votes will be counted if received by 10pm on polling day.”
Independent candidate Thom Robinson, who is contesting the county election in the division, expressed concern about the mistake.
He said: “It is disappointing that Teesdale voters have again been let down by the electoral services. Our local democracy is underpinned by the trust placed in a free and fair system but constant mistakes like this undermine that trust. As an independent candidate I will do all I can to check that every I heard about the Ovington issue, return envelopes addressed for Northumberland rather than Durham.”
Labour chairman for Teesdale, Frank Roche, was more forgiving of the blunder.
He said: “It looks like an honest mistake at the printers and a decent job is being done to rectify the issue.”