Royal Mail criticised for failing to deliver postal votes before election

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.

Luke Graham, the Conservative candidate in Perth and Kinross-shire, said more than 20 voters had told him they had not received their papers before embarking on their summer holidays.

Mr Graham, whose prospective seat was won by the SNP by 21 votes in 2017, said: “It absolutely could be the difference between winning or losing.”

The Telegraph has identified at least 91 constituencies where voters are affected, including 76 in England, 12 in Scotland and three in Wales.

Kemi Badenoch, Grant Shapps and James Cleverly are among Cabinet ministers whose constituents have raised concerns about postal vote delays.

Mr Cleverly, the Home Secretary, said that “some people” in his Essex constituency of Braintree had not yet received their forms.

Mr Cleverly, who is defending a majority of 24,673, said it was not clear if the delays were part of a pattern but urged voters to “chase up” any missing ballots.

He told The Telegraph: “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.”

Downing Street denies that delays will affect results

Downing Street played down the issue on Monday, with the Prime Minister’s official spokesman saying they were “aware of some concerns” but denying the delays could affect results in marginal seats.

An estimated 10 million people are thought to have opted to cast their ballot by post this year, accounting for between 20 and 25 per cent of the vote.

Postal voting was introduced for UK elections in 2001, and has increased in popularity from 4.9 per cent to 21 per cent of votes – 6.7 million – in 2019.

The deadline to apply to vote by post in Thursday’s poll was June 19. Voters could apply for their postal ballot to be resent to them no more than four days before the election if it had not arrived, and are able to personally hand in their votes at a polling station.

If voters have not yet sent their postal ballot, they can take it to a polling station on July 4, although they will be asked for their date of birth, postcode and National Insurance or passport number before they will be able to vote.

Those who do not receive ballots in time, or who cannot hand them into a polling station on Thursday, will not be able to cast their vote.

There were warnings from senior election officials as early as last year that the electoral system would be unable to cope with increasing demand for postal voting.

In a review of the May 2023 local elections, the  Association of Electoral Administrators, which represents returning officers, who are responsible for making sure elections run smoothly, warned about problems with postal votes.

Many returning officers were having to deal with delivery problems, the report said, and “significant numbers” of voters had not received their ballots, which caused “upset”.

Its chief executive, Peter Stanyon, said: “It’s symptomatic of the challenge of delivering postal votes in a very constrained timetable.

“It is getting harder and harder and this time round we are expecting in the region of 10 million postal votes to have been issued for the general election.  That is up by more than 1.5 million on the last time around, which was a winter election.”

The Electoral Commission told The Telegraph last week that problems with the postal voting system would be included in its post-election review.

An Electoral Commission spokesman in Scotland confirmed that tens of thousands of postal votes had been delivered to Scottish voters over the weekend. The spokesman continued: “We know local authorities and Royal Mail are working to get the final ones out as soon as possible.”

A Royal Mail spokesman said that it has a specialist elections team and that it was working closely with local authorities in order to get ballots to voters in time. They said: “We have no backlog of postal votes. 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.”