Locals decry ballot blunder
By politics.co.uk staff
European election candidates in South West England have branded an election guide as biased after it showed a ballot paper with a cross marked in the box next to the Conservatives.
Up to 60,000 ballots have been sent out with the guide, which a local Labour party leader described as “outrageous”.
About 5,000 were sent in Dorset and Somerset while a possible 50,000 were distributed throughout Wiltshire.
Christine Reid, chair of the Wiltshire Labour Party, told the BBC: “I think it is completely outrageous and I do wonder whether there are grounds for a challenge to the result because people are being actively told how to vote.”
Wiltshire Liberal Democrats’ Ian West said they had reported the situation to the Electoral Commission but questioned whether there was any way to retrieve the situation.
The Electoral Commission said responsibility for producing and distributing ballot papers lay with the local returning officer but John Thomson of the Wiltshire Conservatives said he thought it was something they would have to look at after the election.
“I think we are going to get a lot of spoilt forms because it is a huge list,” he told the BBC.
Half of the 50,000 ballot papers sent out with the disputed guidance sheet have already been returned so there is very little which can be done at this point and it will not be until after the election that possible repercussions may be felt.
