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Question for Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission

UIN 433, tabled on 21 June 2017

Question

John Mann
Labour
Bassetlaw
Commons

To ask the hon. Member for Houghton and Sunderland South, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, how many postal votes were discounted because the signature or date of birth was not accepted by returning officers in each constituency in the (a) 2015 and (b) 2017 General Election.

Answer

Bridget Phillipson
Labour
Houghton and Sunderland South
Commons

Answered on

17 July 2017

The Electoral Commission collected data from Returning Officers for all UK constituencies following the UK Parliamentary general election on 7 May 2015. The numbers of postal vote statements rejected by Returning Officers due to mismatched signatures and mismatched dates of birth were as follows:

Postal Vote statements rejected due to mismatched signatures: 46,840

  • Postal Vote statements rejected due to mismatched dates of birth: 38,148
  • Postal Vote statements rejected due to mismatched both dates of birth and signatures: 16,912

Figures for each constituency are available on the Electoral Commission’s website at http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/excel_doc/0011/191648/UKPGE-turnout-postal-rejected-admin-amended-WEB.xlsx

The Electoral Commission is currently collecting data from Returning Officers in relation to the 2017 general election, which will include the number of rejected postal votes. The Commission will publish this in the autumn.

Answered by

Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Named day
Named day questions only occur in the House of Commons. The MP tabling the question specifies the date on which they should receive an answer. MPs may not table more than five named day questions on a single day.