WARRINGTON Borough Council’s chief executive has apologised for a series of errors which almost resulted in the town having no elections earlier this year.
Diana Terris (pictured) – who was Returning Officer at the borough and parish council elections in May – gave her personal apology at a meeting of the borough council last night.
She also gave an assurance that all steps would be taken to ensure the necessary improvement were made to ensure there would not be a repeat of the mistakes when the next elections are held in Warrington – whether they be the European elections in June or a snap General Election called earlier than that.
The council received a 57-page report by John Turner, chief executive of the Association of Electoral Administrators following his five month investigation into a number of complaints about the way the elections were conducted.
Mr Turner told the council the May elections almost didn’t happen because there were delays in printing the ballot papers which only arrived on the day before the election.
“Polling stations could not have opened without ballot papers,” he said.
As a result of mismanagement of the elections, one candidate in the parish election at Poulton-with-Fearnhead was not elected because of an arithmetical error. This meant that another candidate was wrongly elected.
At Stockton Heath, a candidate who lost by only three votes was wrongly denied the opportunity of asking for a recount.
A total of 188 people were disenfranchised because they never received postal voting papers.
Many voters were directed to the wrong polling stations and some were so frustrated they decided not to bother voting.
At some polling stations there were no facilities for the disabled.
Mr Turner said the borough elections passed off with few problems. Most of the complaints related to the parish elections.
He criticised a number of decisions, including one to hold the borough and council election counts on the same night and at the same venue.
Another mistake was to outsource printing of all election documents.
Yet another was the use of portable buildings for polling stations.
Mr Turner said after receiving the complaints, Mrs Terris took the “bold decision” to ask him to investigate.
It was inevitable that his report would reveal shortcomings.
One was that the three people “at the top of the pyramid” organising the elections – Mrs Terris and her two Assistant Returning Officers – were all inexperienced.
He praised members of the council’s democratic services team. But for their commitment in dealing with the delayed ballot papers, the elections might never have happened, he said.
But he pointed out that he had investigated many elections in other areas and always found errors in procedures. He doubted if a “perfect” election had ever been held.
Mrs Terris told the council she fully accepted Mr Turner’s findings and thanked him for the thorough and independent way he had carried them out.
She regretted that he had identified widespread problems which had the potential to undermine confidence in the electoral system in Warrington.
Every one of his recommendations would be acted upon – indeed much progress had already been made.
All staff would undergo thorough training in line with Mr Turner’s recommendations and she would be sending copies of his report to the Electoral Commission and the Ministry of Justice in case they could identify further action that could be taken.
She said: “While we cannot change the events of the May 2008 elections, we can, and must, ensure that we learn from this review and do our utmost to improve our electoral processes to make it as simple, straightforward as possible for people to turn out and exercise their democratic right to vote. I give my personal commitment to making certain that we learn, improve and get it right.”
Council leader Ian Marks praised Mrs Terris for her bold decision to call for an investigation. He said that the leaders of the three political parties – himself, Conservative Keith Bland and Labour Terry O’Neill should also accept some responsibility because they had taken part in the decision to hold the borough and council counts on the same night in the same place.
The management system for elections had existed before Mrs Terris joined the council and a recurring comment in Mr Turner’s report was that council staff had told him “We’ve always done it that way.”
But he accepted that some things had been done differently.
The council agreed to accept Mr Turner’s report and recommendations.
Arrangements for future elections will be monitored by members of the scrutiny committee.
