Royal Mail has denied they are to blame for the failure of thousands of postal votes to arrive in time for votes to be cast in today’s General Election - claiming there is "no backlog" in their network.
Voters have claimed that postmen were instructed to prioritise parcel deliveries over voter ballots. However, some claim to have received their ballots too late to participate in the election today, arguing that they have been denied a choice in what will likely be one of the most momentous election results in generations. Royal Mail has denied this is the case and told the Mirror this evening that there is no backlog of postal votes.
Sandra Javens and her husband Dave had applied for a postal vote before they flew to France on June 20 - but they still did not receive their votes in time. The 75-year-old says a postman told her parcels were being prioritised, which is why their vote was delayed. She told the Daily Telegraph: “We haven’t been given a choice – and that’s not right.”
Royal Mail denies that they prioritise parcels over ballots - something they have been accused of before - and claimed there were no delays for parcels or post in West Sussex, where the Mr and Mrs Javens live.
A Royal Mail spokesperson told the Mirror: “We have delivered more postal votes and candidate mail than ever before and we are proud of the role we play in the democratic process. There is no backlog in our network. We remain confident that postal votes handed to us on time have been delivered in time for polling day. We would welcome a review into the timetable for future elections with all stakeholders to ensure that the system for printing and administering postal votes before they are handed to Royal Mail works as smoothly as possible.”
In an earlier statement, a Royal Mail spokesperson said: "We have a specialist elections team that plans every aspect of the elections delivery programmes and works closely with local authorities to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible. We have investigated concerns with the delivery of postal votes in Westbourne and can confirm that all postal votes we have received for the area have been delivered without delay.”
However, BBC Panorama reported in February that letters were often left in sorting items, while tracked items took precedence, after receiving information from Royal Mail staff.
These claims were backed up by Jon Pinches, director of MPS, a company which prints ballot papers for local authorities. The postal company was also accused of prioritising parcels last year - but Ofcom accepted Royal Mail’s denial that they do this. It was nonetheless fined £5.6 million by Ofcom for failing to hit delivery targets.
The Electoral Commission will investigate the issues with postal voting when it carries out its post-election research. It has come as postal votes in the UK surge, with 21 per cent of voters opting for this form of ballot in the 2019 general election - a number expected to raise by at least one million this year.