Clanger dropped by Electoral Registration Office

In a 'Refresh Exercise' organised by the NPT CBC Electoral Registration Office to update postal voters' data, the reminders for not returning the form were sent out in the same post.    This meant electors having the original notice and the reminder the same day.

This resulted with no follow-up for those who had not returned their form.   Consequently hundreds of postal voters not returning their form have now been informed that they have had their postal vote cancelled.

This administration error is sure to cause much additional work for the relevant department at an unknown cost to council tax payers.

Electors' affected have been told that they will have to apply again for a postal vote.   The application form can be downloaded from: 
http://www.npt.gov.uk/elections
or they can contact Electoral Services on 01639 763330

Cllr Peter Rees responds

I would like to reply to the item posted on your website "NPTCBC Electoral Clanger"

The Postal Vote Signature and Date of Birth refresh exercise is being conducted due to Government rules which require all electors whose postal arrangement is over five years old to provide a fresh specimen of their signature and re-confirm their accurate date of birth.
This is due to the fact that at each and every election this personal identifier information is checked against the details provided by individuals on their postal vote to ensure that it cannot be utilised by anyone other than the elector.
A total of 13,163 refresh forms were originally despatched via Royal Mail on Monday,28th January 2013 and just under 70% were returned by relevant electors straight away. A reminder form was then sent out on Friday, 22nd February 2013 to a total of 4,178 electors.
Following the despatch of the reminder refresh forms in February, the Electoral Registration Officer was informed by a small number of electors that they had not received a copy of their original refresh application in January, which instead was delivered at the same time that they received their reminder application in February.
On further investigation it became clear that this issue was isolated to one or two postcode areas only and was attributable to a postal delivery rather than a print production error. Due to the fact that the problem was so localised it has caused no additional administrative burden to the staff of the Electoral Registration Office and has resulted in no additional costs in conducting the administrative exercise.
The refresh exercise concluded on 14th March, 2013, however anyone interested in having a postal vote can simply and quickly re-apply by completing an application form available at www.npt.gov.uk/elections or by contacting Electoral Services on 01639 763330.
Sincerely..... Cllr Peter Rees.
28.3.13