A CANDIDATE standing for the Camelford division of the Cornwall Council elections today (Thursday) said she was "furious" after her name was left off a number of ballot papers sent to constituents.

Julie Walters, who is standing as an Indepen­dent, said she was first alerted to the mistake by a lady who rang her one evening to say some had received their postal ballot papers, but there were only three candidates listed and Julie's name was missing off the end.

A day or two after, she was asked by another candidate whether she had decided to stand down from the election.

Julie, who lives at Tresmeer, went to the Cornwall Council One Stop Shop in Wadebridge and explained to them what had happened, and she was informed that new ballot papers would only be sent out to the people who contacted the council.

A few days later, Julie phoned Nigel Richards at Cornwall Council, and he told her that if another ballot paper is sent out, voters can still take them to voting stations up until 10pm today (Thursday).

Julie said: "I'm furious. I think it should be completely stopped and started again. It's not just the Camelford area, it's happened other places. Whether it's one or whether it's one hundred, it's still votes that could be important and still matter. It's a bit of a farce. If I don't get in I just think what about the one I may have had.

"I know mistakes happen and I'm trying to be reasonable about it but I put myself in for this job because it's really important to me and really important to people, and if they have a choice, all our names should be on it. I don't want them to think I've given up and pulled out."

Helen Turner, Cornwall Council Communications Officer, said the council were aware of some problems in the Camelford area, and ballot papers for those affected were due to be reprinted and sent out.

A letter was also going to be included in the replacement packs to explain to voters what had happened.

She said the packs were delivered to homes directly from the printers and they were responsible for checking the ballot papers.

Asked why the council used printers based outside of the county, Helen said that the printing was subject to a tender process, and the printers used are the leading printers in this field.

"Nobody in Cornwall could have fulfilled the scale of the task," she added.

There have also been mistakes reported in the postal ballot papers for Poundstock; Newlyn and Goonhavern; Penzance Promenade and Penzance Central.

'NO PAPERS'

The council said it took immediate action to rectify the issue. Affected ballot papers were reprinted and posted to affected households. The council also notified all candidates who were standing in the elections to highlight these issues.

However, on Tuesday, the council said it has received approximately 300 calls from members of the public who had not yet received their postal ballot papers.

The council said all postal vote papers should have been delivered by the printers by May 22. The council was aware that the printers were later in sending some postal votes and some "may still be in transit with Royal Mail."

Dan Rogerson, North Cornwall MP, called on Cornwall Council officers to re-issue ballot papers to postal voters.

He said: "This situation is simply unacceptable at a time when people are already feeling seriously disillusioned with the whole political process. There are many people who will be considering not voting at all and it is the responsibility of the council to make every effort to encourage people to still take part in elections, not to make it even more difficult.

"Cornwall Council must now take steps to ensure that people are able to vote with no problems, whether this be by allowing people that did have postal votes to register their choice at polling stations or by immediately re-issuing ballot papers."

He added: "The council must make clear immediately that it will ensure every postal voter gets the full ballot paper. No voter should be disenfranchised because of officials' errors.

"The Electoral Services Department cannot sit back and wait for the public to get in touch with them. They must identify where mistakes have been made and re-issue ballot papers straight away."

Cornwall Council Chief Executive, Kevin Lavery, said: "We got the paperwork to the printers on time and we are very disappointed and we feel let down. We have 410,000 voters, 63,000 postal voters and we have a problem with printing of 300 postal ballots.

"We can solve that problem but we take the matter very seriously and we are doing everything we can to fix it."

Anyone with queries or concerns about postal voting is asked to call the council hotline on 0300 1234200.