Over 1,000 postal votes rejected at election

Local election 2011

A total of 7.1 per cent of postal votes were rejected from this year’s local election because the returned signature and/or date of birth did not match the signature and/or date of birth of the postal vote application form held by the council.

Figures show that 24,745 postal votes were issued, 15,631 were returned and 1,105 of these were rejected, leaving 14,526 votes that were accepted.

The numbers come following concern about postal vote fraud in the 2011 election which led to police involvement prior to Election Day.

The highest number of rejected postal votes was in the Milkstone and Deeplish ward with 155 votes (14.6 per cent) rejected.

This is followed by 89 postal votes being rejected in Central Rochdale – 10 per cent of the ward’s postal vote.

The other ward making it into the top three was Smallbridge with 77 postal votes rejected; 9.5 per cent of the ward’s postal vote.

The lowest number of votes rejected was in the East Middleton ward, with 25 postal votes not used, equating to 4.9 per cent of the ward’s postal votes.

Delivering the figures at a meeting of Full Council, the Deputy Leader of Rochdale Council, Councillor Peter Williams, said: “All allegations [of postal vote fraud] were forwarded to the police for further investigation, no charges were made.”