Ballot Papers
(asked on 20th July 2017) - View Source
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Houghton and Sunderland South, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, how many and what proportion of postal ballot papers were declared null and void in each of the last five general elections.
The Electoral Commission collected data from Returning Officers for all UK constituencies following the UK Parliamentary general elections in 2001, 2005, 2010 and 2015. The numbers of postal votes rejected by Returning Officers were as follows:
Year | Postal ballots issued | Postal ballots returned | Postal ballots rejected | Postal ballots rejected (% of those returned) |
2001 | 1,758,055 | 1,402,073 | 31,189 | 2.2% |
2005 | 5,362,501 | 4,110,039 | 146,247 | 3.6% |
2010 | 6,996,006 | 5,818,853 | 221,988 | 3.8% |
2015 | 7,592,735 | 6,516,228 | 214,155 | 3.3% |
The Commission is collecting data from Returning Officers following the UK Parliamentary general election in June 2017. This data will be published in September 2017.