Barnsley election: Council criticised after vote-counting error

Sarah Norman, chief executive of Barnsley Council, said just days after the vote the error was "unacceptable"

Barnsley council's failure to count all votes at last May's local election "significantly damaged trust in the electoral process", a report has said.

On 5 May 2021, a box of postal votes for the Royston Ward were not included in the overnight count.

The chief executive of Barnsley Council has apologised and said there were "lessons to be learned".

An independent report into the missing votes is set to be presented to the council on 16 November.

The uncounted votes did not change the outcome of the election. Labour still held the ward with Councillor Dave Webster winning the seat.

However, the missing ballots took Mr Webster's tally from the initially polled 534 votes to 1,085.

'Human error'

The Association of Electoral Administrators carried out an independent investigation and concluded there was no evidence of actual or attempted electoral fraud and that the incident was simply "human error".

The Electoral Commission has informed the returning officer that "she did not meet elements of the performance standards for returning officers".

However, they were "satisfied that the officer has taken steps to make sure that our count processes are designed and managed to secure an accurate result in the future".

The report stated that the time it took to process postal votes alongside the count taking place overnight contributed to the errors that occurred, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

As a result, verifications and counting of votes will now take place on the morning following the election.

The report added: "The postal votes were recounted, and the figures recalculated. While the result for that ward did not change, the process has significantly damaged trust in the electoral process."

An improvement plan will review the electoral process including: training of volunteers at polling stations; communications between staff and candidates and the layout of the counting room.