Another cock-up by the Electoral Commission

Complaints are flooding in to the office about the latest Electoral Commission clanger.
This time it is they who blame printing problems and tight schedules! Surely after witnessing the problems in the June elections they would have had contingency plans.

If they are complaining that they did not have enough time, what about the Yes and No campaigns who were given a damn sight less...and a lot less money than the Electoral Commission's £41m.

The buck must stop with Mr. Younger. He is the head honcho and he must accept full responsibility for this crass incompetence.

The Electoral Commission is becoming an absolute joke. Incompetent and totally discredited and an absolute waste of public money.

Whoops, there goes the voting deadline
Oct 14 2004
By The Journal

The body overseeing the North-East referendum was criticised last night after thousands of voters received details on how to get ballot forms re-directed - after the deadline had passed.
Voters needed to return an application form to a registration officer by 5pm last night if they are not going to be at home during the referendum period.

But a leaflet sent out by the Electoral Commission explaining that arrived on the region's doormats only yesterday.

That means many people who left for work early yesterday would not have seen the information until after the deadline.

The problem harks back to a number of difficulties with all-postal voting in the June European and local elections.

Then, printing problems delayed the arrival of ballot packs, which opponents of the system said could have caused some people to miss their chance to vote before going on holiday.

Yesterday, North-East No Campaign leader and former European election candidate Neil Herron said: "This doesn't surprise me - it's yet another postal-ballot fiasco.
"This has been the most badly handled referendum we have ever witnessed, but we've been saying that for over two years. You would expect them to get some-thing right by now."

Tory Euro-MP Martin Callanan said: "I continue to be astonished by the incompetence of the authorities in relation to the conduct of postal voting in the North-East.
"You would have thought they would have learned their lesson after the fiasco with the European election."

But an Electoral Commission spokeswoman said: "We are aware that the leaflet is later than we planned for it to arrive, but we had quite a tight deadline.
"We are aware that made the 5pm deadline tight, but the purpose of the leaflet was much broader than that."
She said newspaper, radio and internet adverts had all advised people of the deadline well in advance.
Ballot packs for the referendum are due to be sent out on Monday and people have until November 4 to return them.