Voters in one part of Sheffield hit by election blunder

One voter, who has asked to remain anonymous, contacted the Local Democracy Reporter Service to say that she had received two postal votes at her home in Norfolk Park.

She said: “I have a postal vote, the documents arrived yesterday. I received an identical batch today so I’ve phoned the helpline and the person I spoke to indicated that this appears to be an issue with Manor ward – and she’s taken my number so she can call me back with advice.

“I’m really concerned from a voter integrity/fraud perspective that this can happen at all!”

Sheffield City Council confirmed that an error had been made and explained what will happen now. Returning officer and council chief executive Kate Josephs gave assurances that nobody would be able to vote more than once.

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A city council spokesman made the following points:

• Postal voters in Manor Castle ward have been issued with two copies of their postal vote pack.
• Postal voters in Manor Castle ward are asked to return one of the packs and securely destroy the second.
• If both packs are returned then the second pack will be rejected. The first pack will be accepted as normal. No voter will be able to vote more than once.
• The issue is only affecting postal voters in the Manor Castle ward. People outside of Manor Castle do not need to do anything.
• One of the packs contained an error in the accompanying instructions. It asks recipients to vote for no more than two candidates in the city council election. This should have read ‘vote for one candidate’. The instructions at the top of all of the ballot papers are, however, correct.
• Those who have returned a postal vote for Manor Castle ward and believe they may have voted for two candidates for either election are asked to contact the elections team at [email protected] or phone 0114 2736910. If this does not take place their vote will be rejected and will not be counted.

Kate Josephs said: “We are aware of an issue with postal votes in Manor Castle ward. Those affected will receive a letter through the post over the weekend regarding this matter with instructions of how to proceed and we ask everyone affected to take action as soon as possible.

“Please be assured no-one in Sheffield will be able to vote twice.”

For general information on the elections, go to the city council website at https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/your-city-council/voting

Voters go to the polls in Sheffield on Thursday, May 2 to elect one of their three councillors in each of the 28 wards of the council.

Voters in Firth Park do have two votes as Coun Abtisam Mohamed has resigned, creating a casual vacancy as well as the usual election.

Currently, the 84-member council remains under no overall control with Labour as the biggest party, with only two more councillors than the LibDems. The Greens are the third biggest group, followed by Sheffield Community Group councillors.

The election of South Yorkshire Mayor will also take place on the same day. This poll is running two years earlier than normal as the new mayor will also take on the role of police and crime commissioner.