BCP council have issued an apology after several postal voting packs were sent out containing not only the recipient’s form but also those belonging to someone else.
Some of the 55,000 people who opted to vote via post in Decembers General Election have had their private information sent to other, unrelated homes in the area.
The council have highlighted that there is no breech of data protection as all names and addresses of those on the electoral register are publicly available.
The council have said that they are in constant communication with printing supplier about how this has happened and apologise to anyone who has been affected.
BCP Council said on their website: “We would like to reassure everyone that due to the high number of failsafe checks and measures in place with the postal voting system, we are confident that the risk of anyone casting more than one vote is fully mitigated. Every postal vote has to pass automated and then manual verification processes.”
Earlier this week, 838 voting forms were sent out with the date of birth section pre-printed with the incorrect year.
In a statement on the BCP council website, they said: “We apologise to those who have received the incorrect number and advise electors affected just to cross out the incorrect information and overwrite it. We can assure them this will not affect the verification of their postal vote.
“We have also written to all 838 people overnight explaining what they need to do.”
The last batch of postal votes for people who applied after the 13 November are due to be dispatched on the 3rd December but if you have registered and not received yours by December 6 or have received more than your own voting form, please contact the Elections Team on elections@bcpcouncil.gov.uk.