Telford council hits back at 'misleading' postal ballot claims
Telford & Wrekin Council has hit back at 'misleading comments' which accused the council of purposefully sending out postal ballots alongside a letter from Telford's Labour party.
The Electoral Commission also responded to the accusations on social media, saying that political parties often timed the delivery of leaflets alongside the release of polling cards.
A spokesman for the council said: "A number of misleading comments have appeared on social media over the last day, following a post saying that postal ballots issued to Telford constituency voters “arrived with” statements from a political party.
"This has led to an assumption by some that such information was included inside the postal ballot pack.
"The borough’s returning officer Jonathan Eatough has today contacted the Electoral Commission to confirm that the postal ballots issued for the Telford and the Wrekin parliamentary constituencies met the legal requirements for postal ballot packs.
Advance
"The returning officer confirmed that he attended the company printing and packing postal ballot packs for the local constituencies and that he saw them being packed in accordance with the law."
The Electoral Commission said: “Political parties often know when poll cards and postal vote packs are due to go out, and may time the delivery of their leaflets to arrive in the same post."
All candidates and agents in the Telford constituency were informed at the same time by the returning officer in advance of the date when postal ballots would be issued to Royal Mail for posting.
The posts originally claiming wrongdoing have since been removed from the web.
