Postal voters urged to re-register after cyber attack

The attack breached the council's IT systems in December

Postal voters in Gloucestershire are being urged to re-register following December's cyber attack that targeted the council's electoral records.

Gloucester City Council said its voter service was up and running and all waiting applications had been resolved.

Anyone who has not applied to re-register is being asked to do so to ensure they are included.

The attack disrupted council services for months and has been linked to Russian hackers.

The council said it had managed to recover the electoral register but was not able to reclaim postal vote applications previously submitted by voters.

Despite appearing to have resolved the issues, councillors raised serious concerns about the impact of the cyber attack, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

A council meeting in July heard that people's private information including bank details, signatures, addresses and national insurance numbers had been accessed by hackers, LDRS reported.

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Since then, the council has been writing to every postal voter asking them to fill in a new application form included with the letter and to return it in the pre-paid envelope.

Council returning officer Jon McGinty said: "We apologise for the inconvenience to voters but we would urge them not to delay in returning their new postal vote application form so that we can make sure they can continue to vote by post at future elections."

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