Borough council apologises to UKIP candidate after name left off ballot papers

Darlington Borough Council has apologised to a UKIP candidate after his name was missing from 89 ballot papers.

The mistake arose at Whessoe polling station, which had papers for the Darlington and Sedgefield constituencies.

There were five and six candidates respectively for each constituency. However, a guillotine was set in error for the Sedgefield constituency, meaning the last candidate’s name, UKIP’s David Hodgson, was cut off the paper.

Corrected ballot papers were produced once concerns were raised.

The council said it would not attempt to contact the 89 voters, whose votes would be counted as they were.

“They are mixed with other papers in the box and to pull the relevant papers would risk breaking the confidentiality of the ballot box,” the authority said.

The result will stand unless challenged.

Cath Whitehead, Acting Returning Officer for the General Election in Darlington, said: “We would like to issue a sincere apology to David Hodgson, the UKIP candidate, and the 89 voters at Whessoe Parish Hall who placed their votes before the error on the Ballot paper was spotted and rectified. This was due to our error.

“The decision has been made to continue with the election and the count as normal as we wish to maintain the individual’s rights to have the way they voted remain confidential, this would not be the case if we went through the ballot boxes and pulled out the 89 votes.

“The candidate and any electors have the right to challenge the outcome.”