Public left confused as wrong people sent information about registering to vote

Mailings intended to tell people who have recently moved how to get on the electoral register have mistakenly been going out to people who have not moved in years.

A circular from the Electoral Commission sent to councils around the country explains,

As you will be aware, the Commission is currently running a campaign to encourage home movers to register to vote. It has become apparent that there is a problem with one of the data sources being used for the campaign, resulting in some people who have not recently moved home being sent the mailing in error. We are investigating this problem with our data supplier as a matter of urgency.

We are aware that this has caused distress for some recipients of the mailing and that they have contacted their local authorities with enquiries or complaints about the mailing.

We are very sorry for the inconvenience this is causing.

Read more by or more about or .
This entry was posted in Election law.
Advert

2 Comments

  • Anthony Aloysius St 17th Feb '10 - 11:07pm

    People are “distressed” because they’ve been sent a letter telling them how to register to vote? How would they feel if something really bad happened?

  • Sophia Pangloss 18th Feb '10 - 9:28am

    I get yer point Mr Aloysius, yes worse things could happen. However, having received one of these missives myself, I briefly wondered if our creaking electoral bureaucracy had indeed lost my vote. Disenfranchisement is a huge problem, (for the governed not the government) and a system which becomes less trusted by the day breeds these feelings of insecurity.
    After a second thought I judged it more likely that the Electoral Commission had cocked-up in sending the letter, and that my vote is more likely to reside here long after I have moved away, or even popped my clogs. I stopped fretting.

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • Alex B
    Not tax raising but debt raising capability. Anyway my experience is that local councils have no experience of large scale building projects. So whichever way y...
  • Iain Donaldson
    Jana, if Burnham's speech marks the beginning of a wider national debate, that can only be a good thing. England's over-centralisation is a genuine problem. How...
  • Paul Holmes
    Alex, you are not seriously suggesting that unelected and entirely unaccountable Housing Associations should be given tax raising powers? Also, can you point...
  • Paul Holmes
    Excellent points Ian. Local Government has been eroded for a long time but is now being replaced by local administration of Government policy at break neck spee...
  • Alex B
    Big problem on council housing is that local authorities just do not have the organisational resource or expertise to manage big projects. It calls for a big ex...