Court orders election rerun in Bournemouth after wrong ballot papers used

As previously reported, the council election in Kinson, Bournemouth was marred by a basic error in May: the wrong ballot papers were sent out to polling stations. The courts have now ruled that an election has to be run again:

Kinson North ballot papers were sent to Kinson South polling stations and vice versa for the May 7 local elections.

The mix-up was discovered shortly after 7am, but a number of voters were unable to cast their votes until the right ballot papers had been delivered…

Labour’s Beryl Baxter finished fourth, 64 votes shy of third-placed Conservative candidate Norman Decent, who was elected alongside fellow Tory Roger Marley and UKIP’s Laurence Fear.

Ms Baxter has now successfully challenged this result in the High Court and a by-election will be held on December 10.

The judge ruled that first-placed Cllr Fear had been validly elected because the number of voters affected by the error was not sufficient to affect his election.

But the election of the second and third-placed candidates was declared invalid because the numbers involved were sufficient to change the result.