'Full review' set to be carried out after error meant 813 people voted in wrong polling division
Hundreds of people voted in the wrong polling district in the local elections
A ‘full review’ is set to be carried out after a boundary discrepancy meant hundreds of residents voted in the wrong polling division during the county elections.
Investigations are going to take place within Havant Borough Council after it was unearthed during the Hampshire Council Council election count, on Thursday, May 7, that 813 Havant residents incorrectly voted due to an error.
One polling district within the Leigh Park Hermitage ward — the Dickinson Centre - was incorrectly assigned to the North East Havant county division instead of its correct division, North West Havant.
As a result, the invalid votes were isolated during the count, before being sealed and labelled, with the returning officer advising candidates and party representatives of the mishap.
Havant Borough Council, which had the responsibility for counting the ballot papers in the area, told The News there is going to be a review to establish how the ‘discrepancy’ happened - though they said the error had no impact on the overall result.
A spokesperson said: “The council undertook a full review of polling districts and polling places in 2023 - undertaken alongside the implementation of a boundary review for the borough prior to the local elections in May 2024.
“Significant work was undertaken to cleanse existing data and ensure compliance with the Elections Act 2024. During this process, which was led by a highly experienced elections consultant, an error was inadvertently introduced to how one polling district was designated.
“As a result of the error, 813 voters did not vote within their correct polling district. This represented 17.6 per cent of the votes cast for the North West Havant county division being discounted.
After the votes were counted at Havant Leisure Centre the returning officer announced the following results for the two affected county council seats:
North East Havant
- George David Madgwick (Reform UK): 2,135 votes (49%) – Elected
- Tim Pike (Conservative): 735 votes (17%)
- Henry Nathan Mitchell (Green): 597 votes (14%)
- Richard Joseph Spence Brown (Labour): 586 votes (13%)
- Catherine Billam (Liberal Democrat): 331 votes (8%)
- Total votes: 4,384
- Electorate: 17,287
- Ballot papers issued: 5,225
- Rejected ballots: 23
- Turnout: 30%
North West Havant
- Paul McCormick (Reform UK): 1,952 votes (42%) – Elected
- Lulu Bowerman (Conservative): 997 votes (22%)
- Philippa Gray (Liberal Democrat): 904 votes (20%)
- Peter May (Green): 455 votes (10%)
- Jason Clyde Horton (Labour): 302 votes (7%)
- Total votes: 4,610
- Electorate: 12,308
- Ballot papers issued: 4,629
- Rejected ballots: 17
- Turnout: 38%