Postal voters get two voting papers for the election

Dozens of Airdrie postal voters received two ballot papers for the general election.

SNP candidate Neil Gray highlighted the issue after being contacted by constituents who had received two identical sets of voting papers for next Thursday’s poll.

Returning officer Paul Jukes says it arose as a result of a printing error, and stressed that electronic scanning of the unique barcodes – which are the same on both sets of duplicate papers – mean no elector will be allowed to vote twice.

The duplicate papers issue is so far understood to have affected 36 constitutents in the Gartlea area.

Mr Gray told the Advertiser:“I was contacted by some local people who had received two postal votes; they were very concerned about that and I shared that concern.

“It seems North Lanarkshire Council appear to have a grasp on it and the returning officer knows what’s gone wrong, so I’m confident that the issue is resolved.

“Obviously I’d have preferred that it hadn’t happened in the first place, and caused confusion for many people; but despite two papers being received, only one could be counted even if someone tried to vote twice.”

Returning officer Mr Jukes, the chief executive of North Lanarkshire Council, said:“We are aware of an error by a printing contractor which has meant that a very small number of postal voters in Airdrie & Shotts received two ballot papers with identical unique numbers.

“We have asked our contractor to provide us with a full report on how this error came to be made.

“The integrity of the election is absolutely not in question as the unique barcode on the ballot paper and postal voting statement is scanned electronically, meaning the system will prevent more than one paper with the same unique number being counted.”

He added:“We have asked voters who receive duplicate ballot papers to complete one and return it as normal, and either destroy or return the duplicate to us for secure destruction.

“We would also remind voters that it is a criminal offence to attempt to vote twice in any election.”