Rerun election count finds missing votes, though result unchanged

An update to my blog about Darlington where suspected missing postal votes led the council to apply to the courts to recheck the election count.

A new count has now been conducted and votes had indeed been missed:

The inspection found that the declared result, which saw Conservative Lorraine Tostevin and Liberal Democrat Joe Kelley elected into the ward’s two seats, would not change.

Cllr Tostevin again topped the poll with 875 votes, increasing her majority from 71 to 116 votes, while Cllr Kelley came second with 759 votes, and his wife, Claire, in third with 622 votes.