Up to 100 councils and hundreds of thousands of voters are believed to be affected by late delivery of ballot packs, which has been caused by late changes in anti-fraud measures.
People registered to vote by post in Preston received their forms 24 hours late. Mike Thorpe, head of electoral services at Preston city council, said: “We’re critical of the government, not the printers.
“It was because of the new printing requirements [and] the checking of personal identification.”
Peter Battrick, communications manager at North Norfolk district council, which used printer Document Technology, said: “We should have had them delivered yesterday (Monday) but the majority have arrived this morning.”
Jon Sanders, managing director of Document Technology, told the Eastern Daily Press that the changes had caused “unavoidable delays further up the supply chain”.
Councils in Scotland were advised of problems by their postal ballot body Electoral Reform Services (ERS).
Tom Aitchison, Edinburgh returning officer, said: “The problem arose because of a delay in providing ballot papers for a number of councils by [printer] DRS. This has resulted in a delay in issuing postal voting material.
ERS was unavailable for comment.
Late changes put pressure on printers to deliver ballots
Printers were this week embroiled in a row over the controversial postal voting system, as printing delays led to fears that some people would be unable to vote in next Thursdays elections.
