Glitch on form hits thousands of Walsall voters

Wrongly marked electoral forms stating residents no longer live at their home address have been distributed to thousands of residents across Walsall.

The blunder has seen forms with the error sent to 11,000 households across the borough - affecting more than 23,000 people who have previously used a postal vote. A cross has been put in the 'no longer lives here' box rather than the postal vote category after a mistake was made by printers who were working on behalf of Walsall Council.

Bosses at Walsall Council have admitted 10 per cent of forms distributed to Walsall residents contain the error but insist they will not lose their eligibility to vote.

Each household receives one form with the number of eligible voters on. All postal voters have been affected with a total of 23,960 in the town.

Bloxwich councillor Kath Phillips was alerted to the problem by residents in her ward. She said: "Elderly people are very upset and confused about this and whether they will be taken off the register.

"There is quite a high percentage of people who use a postal vote. This should not have been sent out to people."

But Peter Allsop, electoral services manager at Walsall Council, said: "Unfortunately an error was made on 10 per cent of the forms by the company who printed them which did not come to light until they had been dispatched.

"I would like to reassure residents this will not affect them in any way as our register is correct and postal votes are never removed unless we receive advice in writing from the elector.

"People can either correct the error on the form themselves and return it in the freepost envelope or call 01922 652030.

"Anyone who returns the form with a mark in the box 'no longer lives at this address' will be checked against our register and if they are on the list we will contact them to clarify the situation.

"If we are unable to contact them I would stress again they will not be removed from the register."

By Craig Hughes