To think this was an outrageous error on the ballot paper

[SEmyarse]

Background, in the run up to the local election DH and me were discussing our voting intentions. We have both voted euro sceptic in the past, me more than him. I decided this time though that Farage not calling out even the craziest Trumpisms was too far for me so I wouldn't be voting reform, and would probably go Tory. DH decided however that he would like to vote reform.

However when the local candidates list was finalised we were the only local ward without a reform candidate. We had tory/lab/libdem/green/independent. We struggled to find out anything about the independent guy, so DH decided he couldn't face voting for any of the mainstream parties and would abstain.

We'd only had libdem literature through the door until Weds evening when we seemingly got tory and independent at once. Having read the independent one and seen the incredibly uninspiring tory one both of us actually decided to vote independent .

DH went to vote yesterday and having done so texted me to say that the independent was actual reform! He has form for massively misreading things so I was dubious, but when I turned up there it was clear as day, the guy who's been canvassing as independent has a reform logo by his name. I spoke to the returning officer who said I was the third (at 4pm) person to notice and has given me a police email to contact.

I've still voted for him because I can't see how it can be him at fault. It's not like you can sneak in to a party is it? Have I accidentally voted reform? Have others? Have some changed from him because they think he is reform? Will he get hassle from locals for misrepresentation involving the most divisive party?

Its quite an inconsequential seat which almost certainly will be Libdem, but I think this is absolutely outrageous.

At a minimum she should be a party member and be an approved party candidate to use the party logo as that would be copyright and IP to the party "HQ".

Given Reform is the most popular party nationwide, and independents typically gets very few votes, a Reform candidate pretending to be independent would be a very odd strategy in most circumstances.

I have been involved in lots of local elections as a party chair and stood for election numerous times.

With the seriousness of election law and the systems in place I would be surprised if it was an error

To have a logo in the ballot paper it has to be a logo registered the electoral commission and a nominated person from the party has to agree to it's use. Also, the PV ballots would have gone out about 14 days ago so I would have thought if it was an error it would have been picked up on

Look at the statement of person's nominated on the council's website and see if they are affiliated with a party there?

They may not have anyone covering that area. Don't encourage them.

She had no reason to tell me she wasn’t a party member and I don’t know why she did. AFAIK she was certainly an approved party candidate as the information advertising the “meet the candidate” event was put out by the Green Party.

I imagine she became a party member very soon after I spoke to her, but whether this was before election day I don’t know. Does the process take long?

My ward has active groups working on maintaining our wild areas and similar policies which I think would align with local Green policy. I had heard of her through one or more of those groups, not as a Green.

Ballot papers are meticulously checked. It's far more likely imo that the canvassing material was wrong. It would be interesting to know why. Will you update us when you get a response, @SEmyarse?

Very fishy. There could still be fraudulent campaigning.

I doubt the Electoral Commission have got it wrong on the ballot paper. If they have, that’s serious too, as it means the independent candidate may have lost votes.

I’d definitely report to the police and I suggest you contact Electoral Commission too, with evidence the candidate called themselves an independent.

https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/about-us/contact-us

I take it your DH doesn’t agree with women’s rights if he wanted to vote Reform 🙁

I work as a Presiding Officer for elections, a couple of years ago there was an error on the ballot papers and they had to be reprinted.

They're meticulously checked, so it's very unlikely to be an error on the ballot paper.

The issue would be what her status was on the day she registered to be put on the ballot.

If she is signing to say she is a party member and asking that the Green logo is attached to the ballot paper it becomes about her signing that the data is true when it is not true

I must have got the wrong end of the stick, then. She probably meant she wasn’t a Green Party member until she considered standing, and after joining was chosen to be their candidate.

I don’t know what the next stage is, whether she puts in her nomination papers or the party does it for her, but she would have been a party member then. So, her having their logo by her name on the ballot paper will have been perfectly acceptable.

Still not had a response from either BBC or electoral people.
The guy in question came second in the end, I'm not sure but I think that might be a better result than he expected so I think he may have gained rather than lost from this. Of course that means that others have lost. The Lib Dem win is a long way in front though, so probably the correct result.
He is absolutely insistent that he's nothing to do with reform. He's posted a photo of the ballot paper showing that actually there's no party listed under his name, it's just that they've added the logo on the right hand side. I think there can be no doubt that it's not his fault.

I dont know if the person has to turn up in person but I am pretty sure direct party nominations have been unlawfull since the mid 19th century after a man 3 months dead was once registered and so elected.

For partys they hold an internal election/appointment system which is independent of the public registration process.

I was following the instructions on registering as a candidate which I’d found on some official site online.

If the candidate has to put in the papers themselves, than that’s what happened.

Registering a deceased candidate reminds me of this sort of thing.

I'm really surprised they didn't put a sign at the entrance to each station the ballot was incorrect.

Whether he was officially standing as a candidate for Reform or not, surely you should have researched all the candidates and found the one who was most aligned with your values. If you’d actually done your research, you’d have seen that on his website, etc.

Yes, it’s sneaky and I would report it, but drives me nuts when people just sit back and expect information to be fed to them instead of thinking for themselves. You only have yourself to blame.

If this has happened he can contest the result of the election and somebody at the Council will be in a lot of trouble .

Back in around 2008 an officer at the Council where I was a Councillor on was sacked because of an error with the instructions on Postal vote letters - there was a by-election in one ward so they had two votes but he sent that letter to all Postal voters in the borough by mistake.

Have you looked at the statement of person's nominated? That will clarify

This.

You’ve a choice of a reform candidate and election officials to point the finger at and you decide it’s the election officials?

Nuts.

Yes, this. I think it's a terrible failure of core democracy that the vast majority of people will 'vote tory', 'vote labour', 'vote reform' etc.

You really are supposed to vote for the candidate you want to represent you, but very, very few people actually do that - and the media actively encourage them not to in their reporting.

I know people will strongly disagree with me, and it might not be as streamlined in the execution of policies; but I think that true democracy would be much better served if every MP were voted in on his or her individual merits, without any parties at all.

Yes, it would force people to get more involved in finding out about the candidates before choosing one, instead of just lazily putting a mark against red, blue, yellow, green or whatever - but in what world is that actually a bad thing?!

I honestly believe that thousands of people would cheerfully vote for truly dodgy candidates - whose 'highly questionable' backgrounds could be easily established with a simple search online - if they had 'Labour' or 'Conservative' next to their names; and never be any the wiser even if they got voted in.

That's really naughty if it's true, perhaps name the person or area?

Yes, where was this?

But there's a legal expectation that ballot papers will be accurate. The onus isn't on voters to fact-check them.

surely you should have researched all the candidates and found the one who was most aligned with your values. If you’d actually done your research, you’d have seen that on his website, etc.

That's literally what OP did. That's exactly how she noticed it looked odd he had a Reform logo.

Then her DH thought he'd remembered wrongly or gotten it wrong, because the ballot paper was (presumably incorrect) and misleading.
As much research as you do, anyone would be thrown by that - most people believe they are checked to the point an error would not be possible.

I believe that things SHOULD be checked to the point that this sort of thing shouldn't be possible. It still seems more likely to me that it's a printing error than someone trying to pretend to either be or not be a reform candidate. I just don't know how they would do that. Or why. It's not like it would go unnoticed in the long run. I AM astounded that a printing error could get through but having dealt with various bureaucratic things it's hardly surprising in some ways.

I voted for the bloke because I was interested in the stuff he said about local flood alleviation and trade apprenticeships. His flyer didn't give any indication of where he was on the political spectrum really. It'd be madness if he'd won and suddenly went 'hey look, tricked yah, you've got a reform councillor'. Even if that was his plan he'd have to have printers onside.

I've not had any response from the media, electoral officials or local council.

@SEmyarse did you check the Statement of Person's nominated? That will show if he was endorsed.

Like I said in a previous post this is serious so I am surprised nobody has come back to you.

I'm not totally sure what that means but I read the official list of candidates on the day our local authority published it. He showed as independent. All literature and signs that I have seen show him as independent.

I didn't notice at the time but he's put a pic of the ballot paper on his Facebook which shows a blank where the other parties have their party, it's just that the reform logo is showing on the right hand side of his name which is the misleading bit. He states he is very unhappy about it and will take it further.

I'm actually more upset at the complete lack of reply from any of the people I've emailed. It might only be a local election in a safe seat, but it is SO important that we have a fully fair and transparent democracy.