COUNCIL bosses have shifted the blame for electoral problems which saw several Penwith candidates left off the ballot papers for the June 4 elections.

Printers in East Sussex, which were paid to produce the postal votes and ballot papers, were blamed for the errors which left Jan Ruhrmund (Penzance Promenade) and Tamsin Williams (Penzance Central) guillotined from the papers.

But Cornwall Council, which breached Electoral Commission guidelines over the votes, has conceded that lessons have been learned.

A report into an internal review of the preparation and processes for the European and council elections held in June was published by Cornwall Council last week.

Printers

It highlighted that errors in not getting postal votes out to homes in time and for mistakes on ballot papers which left some candidates off were all due to printers in Sussex employed by the council.

However the council has admitted that a major factor was the printing firm being based so far away from Cornwall. The Electoral Commission, in a guide to managing elections produced for local authorities, says councils should ensure a member of staff is on a contractor's premises while the work is being carried out to quality test the ballot papers or postal vote forms.

However, the council has indicated that no member of staff went to the Sussex print company and that mistakes were noticed only when the documents were delivered in Cornwall.

The affected ballot papers, which also left prospective candidates Joan Tanner and Mark Noall for St Ives North off the list, were reprinted and posted when the error was spotted.

Conclusions

As a result of the errors the council, which had received 63,667 postal vote applications, had to reissue 686 postal voter packs.

In the report's conclusions it states: "This was a highly complex and high risk set of elections where, overall, statutory deadlines were consistently delivered and met.

"All problem issues and unexpected events were as a direct result of delays in the production and distribution of printed electoral materials.

"The council and the voters were let down by the problems relating to the printing and delivery of the postal vote packs, the ballot paper errors and delays with the delivery of the main ballot papers.

"All staff involved with the project greatly regret any individual not being allowed the right to vote and the lessons learned from this experience are being used to minimise the risk of this occurring in the future."