Council that found 864 uncounted postal votes after declaring result refers mishap to Electoral Commission

North Lincolnshire Council has referred a ward's local election result to the Electoral Commission after finding more than 850 uncounted postal votes after the result was declared.

The council said that 864 postal votes were discovered immediately after the result for Broughton and Scawby Ward was called in the local election earlier this month (4 May).

The council's Returning Officer, Peter Thorpe, said it is "not an acceptable situation to have uncounted votes and below the standards residents should rightfully expect".

He added: "Candidates, agents and their wider teams work hard for people's votes and the residents of Broughton and Scawby Ward should expect their votes to be counted as they intended. I am sorry that this did not happen.

"We do know that this was a genuine mistake. We are working closely with the Electoral Commission to strengthen procedures and ensure all lessons are learned."

The council added that all candidates and agents had been made aware of the referral and had been briefed in relation to the options available to them to either issue a petition to the Election Petitions Office or make an application to the County Court under Rule 53 of the Local Elections (Principal Areas) (England & Wales) Rules 2006.

A total of 1880 votes were counted for five candidates in the ward.

There were two Local Conservative candidates, two Labour candidates and one Green Party candidate running. The two Conservative candidates, Janet Lee and Carol Ross, were elected with 525 votes and 528 votes, respectively.

Cllr Lee and Cllr Ross have been councillors since 2020.

The Labour candidates secured 367 votes and 355 votes respectively, while the Green Party candidate took 105 votes.

Adam Carey