Four English regions – Yorkshire & Humberside, the North-west, North-east and East Midlands – have been part of a pilot postal voting scheme for the elections on Thursday.
But several councils had to draft in staff from other departments to get all the ballot slips into the post in time.
Oldham council used 120 members of staff including housing officers, refuse collectors and cleaners to deliver voting forms to 159,000 electors on Tuesday and Wednesday.
It said it was not confident the Royal Mail would deliver the forms in time to give people a week to consider their decision and return the forms by 10 June. A council spokesperson said: "All staff who could post forms without causing too much disruption to their work were asked to join in. The effort paid off – all the forms have been posted."
Staff have now returned to their usual tasks.
Housing officers have a good idea of who lives where and it’s important the forms are given to the correct person
Malcolm Dumper, Southampton council
Malcolm Dumper, executive director of the Association of Electoral Administrators and deputy returning officer for Southampton council, said local authorities had every right to use their staff to distribute the voting papers.
"Normally, returning officers would use a distribution system like the Royal Mail," he said, "but they also have the power to appoint internal council staff."
Dumper said housing officers were ideal for the job because of their familiarity with the area: "A lot of houses are in multiple occupancy and housing officers have a good idea of who lives where. It's very important that ballot forms are given to the correct individual."
Macclesfield council also used staff to deliver ballot papers, mainly to old people's homes. A spokesperson said the council had always planned to hand-deliver to these homes so that help could be offered to those who might be confused by the forms.
Source
Housing Today
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