Stoke Council elections troubled with pre-election address problems

The Sentinel today reported how 100 houses on London Road have been caught up in an address mix-up. But it's looking like the problems aren't ending there...

Check out The Sentinel's article here: http://bit.ly/jc5WnN

Councillor Roy Naylor revealed on twitter further problems arising whilst visiting residents in Blurton today.

"Some addresses in Finstock Avenue have been placed into the New Blurton East Ward, but recently whilst delivering flyers for the Non-Aligned Candidate Nina Hulse, we noticed that these addresses appeared in the Electral Register for Blurton West & Newstead."

Follow Cllr. Naylor on twitter at http://twitter.com/BlurtonNews

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UPDATE MAY 3:
Cllr Naylor has updated his twitter feed:

"Just had a call from a reporter at the Sentinel Newspaper and it would appear I was correct on Saturday that about 35 homes on Finstock Avenue, Blurton, have been put in the wrong ward, they should be in the New Blurton East Ward but have been issued polling cards for Blurton West & Newstead. Apparently they can still vote but not for their wards candidates. Not Democratic at all."

And I have been kindly informed by Community Voice candidate Mike Barnes that similar issues are arising in Abbey Hulton & Townsend as well as other areas across Stoke-on-Trent.

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Stoke-on-Trent City Council have remapped their wards ahead of next week's elections. When the list of polling station locations (see here) was revealed, many residents complained of long distances making it difficult to vote in their new ward.

Now it seems some residents will be voting for their neighbours' councillors and in effect having a zero say in who their councillor for the next 4 years will be - after all the 100 votes caught up in the mix-up on London Road could have affected the result in a big way.

A similar incident occurred in 2003, when 30 homes in Harborough, Leicestershire, were sent polling cars with the wrong wards on. However, the Returning Officer in that case was able to send correct cards before the election. Read about that incident here.

Questions are now being raised if an election held without the inclusion of the 100 London Road households will be lawful or not.

Legal challenges may be raised by candidates who are not elected if they believe the number of voters affected by the mistake would have resulted in a different election result.

The Returning Officer Paul Hackney, told The Sentinel in the above linked article "Discrepancies will be dealt with immediately after the election."

The register for this election was first published on March 1 and it is unclear where any blame lies for the mistake.

If you know of any other houses caught up in address/ward mix-ups, please let us know at stokeelect2011@live.co.uk or post a comment below.