London Elections and “irregularities”!
A brief BBC report from Friday sheds a little light on some London election “irregularities”!
The report states:
An inquiry has been launched after polling station staff reportedly spoilt ballot papers by writing voting card numbers on ballot papers.
A spokesman for London Elects, the body running the poll in the capital, said it was investigating an “isolated incident” in Lambeth, south London, after polling clerks wrote on 10 people’s ballot papers. Marks other than a voter’s cross invalidates ballot papers.
The spokesman told the BBC: “We have confirmed that at one polling station in Lambeth, polling station staff wrote what is thought be the polling card numbers on the ballot paper. We took instant action and will find out why the staff made this mistake and we shall take it from there. As far as we are aware this is an isolated incident.”
Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay, a Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, fears that his vote was invalidated when he voted in Lambeth. He said: “I had to point out to the presiding officer at my polling station that they should not write our poll numbers on our ballot papers.
“My vote will not be secret along with about 20 others. Lambeth must brief its poll staff better to protect democracy.”
The BBC reported a similar incident at a polling station in Croydon, south London.
Well, that explains 10 ballot slips – but what about the other 120,000 or so, rejected in the London Assembly elections and the 460,000 or so, in the Mayoral elections?
