PROBLEMS with polling cards being sent out with the wrong information on were caused by issues with the printers, a report has revealed.
The incident has been reviewed by members of the audit committee at Lichfield District Council following problems in the run up to the General Election earlier this year.
Some households received cards which had the wrong voter information inside, forcing the council to send out replacements.
A report from Simon Fletcher, the council’s chief executive officer, said the problem had been pinpointed to a technical issue with how the pages in a second batch were laid out ahead of being printed.
“It was not identified in the quality control checks done at print and finishing stages meaning the operators were not checking the data inside matched the outside or checking with the print outs and so didn’t fully follow the quality checking process.
“There was immediate agreement to reprint the poll cards and we included in bold red writing that it was a replacement. We also then requested to include the guidance to request that the original be destroyed.
“This reprint was at no cost to the authority.”
The meeting of the audit committee was told that a team of council officers helped to deliver the replacement polling cards to ensure they were with the voters before the day of the election.
Cllr Thomas Marshall, Conservative representative for Armitage with Handsacre, said:
“The way the officers worked to remedy this important set of circumstances was quite remarkable.
“All the officers concerned should be congratulated and thanked for their work – they saved the day effectively and averted a bit of a disaster.”
The report added that a review of how polling cards were laid out had also taken place, with a new design meaning the voter information would only be on the outside.
