Council plays down criticism over lack of postal votes in Barnet

Barnet’s Conservative group deputy leader Lucy Wakeley has criticized Barnet Council’s postal voting system after several residents reported that their postal vote had not arrived.

Cllr Wakeley admitted that Royal Mail was partly responsible and added that “the vast majority of postal votes should have arrived and did” during the recent mayoral and Greater London Authority (GLA) elections.

However, she asked the council to facilitate the replacement of lost or missing postal votes.

Currently, if a resident’s postal vote does not arrive, they have to go to Colindale council offices to receive another printed one.

Cllr Wakeley pointed out that the closure of Colindale station for six months due to renovations made it “difficult for many residents”.

The opposition councilor advised the Labor group to move the service to Hendon Town Hall in the meantime as it was “easily accessible by public transport and by car”.

She said: “It is vital that everyone who wants to vote can vote. We are therefore calling on the council to relocate or extend its service for the next general election.”

In response, Barnet Council pointed out that fewer than 200 postal votes needed to be reissued out of a total of nearly 60,000.

A council spokesman said: “Voting by post is an efficient and convenient way for many voters to cast their vote. However, in a small number of cases postal ballot packages are lost, damaged or not received by the voter and must be reissued.

“The law requires this to be done in person, manually, from ‘council offices’. In the last election, fewer than 200 postal votes had to be recast out of a total of 57,171.

“Despite the closure of Colindale tube station, we are confident that the office at 2 Bristol Avenue is easily accessible by bus and car for those who need a reissued postal vote. All postal voters who have concerns have until 5pm on Wednesday 19 June to go to a proxy vote or vote in person at a polling station.”