Polling stations in Abingdon opened today (Thursday, 1 May 2025) from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM for the election of councillors to Oxfordshire County Council. It is predicted to be the hottest day of the year and the warmest May Day ever. The Guildhall is used by people in the town centre.
After a break of three elections, Preston Road Community Centre is once again being used as a polling station. It will be used by most residents south of the River Ock, apart from a smaller number who vote at the Abingdon Carousel Family Centre.
Candidate round our way had a random and wrong party logo next to their name on the ballot paper. An AWFUL mistake!
Surely the election for that ward should be re-run?
How can such a mistake be made in this day and age?
Yes – very odd. I’ve never seen that happen before…. ‘The Oxford Mail’ has published the results and ‘No party listed’ appears against his name – I’ve not seen that happen before, either. I agree that the election for that ward should be re-run.
Yep…if you can’t trust an election,.what’s the point…
It looks like the Council are claiming that he was actually a Reform candidate, claiming to be independent.
Might you have a link to that?
It’s in the comments on the Facebook post about it, there’s a screenshot of an email which shows he did register as reform and asked for the party name not to be shown
According to Democracy Club website and also the Oxford Council website he is listed as Independent.
Out of interest, if he actually “isn’t” then how do we know that any of the others are what they said either?
I am sure, in an effort to demonstrate a robust system with integrity the local ward will be initiating a re-vote immediately.
The ppr chap came second…I wonder where he’d come if the information given to voters was actually accurate?
Absolute waste of money for the election to be rerun, the Liberal Democrat’s got more votes than all the others put together…
It would be open for the candidate to apply to the courts for a rerun of the election; I suspect they wiill not.
The will of the people in Abingdon and Oxfordshire is clear, electing a council right for middle England and British values and the politics of hope and not division.
The Lib Dems did not get more votes than all the others put together in that ward (South Abingdon). They had 42.3% of the vote, the ‘disputed’ candidate had 25.3%. The turn out was 33.6%.
Who knows how different any of these figures might have been, in either direction, if the correct description was given. It changed my vote and I feel very angry.
It should be rerun in the interest of fairness and democracy.
It’s not necessarily about a different outcome.
It’s a question over the integrity…trust…confidence in the whole process.
Personally I don’t care who “the winner is”; I care that the process is sound. Honest. Just. Dare i say….democratic.
I’m not a politician. But if I were I would want to know that I won based on a system that had integrity, as opposed to have won by a system that can not be trusted. But that’s just me. Perhaps that’s why I’m not a politician.
I guess what’s most important is the winning. 🤷♂️
On reflection I think there clearly are some issues here but I would also be interested in the council’s response regarding this. It may be a mistake caused by the council or an oversight by the candidate/agent; it may not be a mistake at all.
I am also unclear whether, if this is a council mistake, whether there would be any provision for a re-run. I suspect the winning candidate would have a view on an election re-run through no fault of their own!
Equally there may be public concern over a by-election costing upwards of £10,000.
Any over turning of a result would require a High Court direction; I suspect this would take six months at least, longer than that with the way the courts service has been run into the ground.
Having said all that I think we need to know more about this. Has a complaint been made to the returning officer – councils would not act on social media comments in this regard.
It strikes me that Reform could easily sort this out. Just issue a statement, eg.
“Joe Bloggs was never our candidate, and was fraudulently using our logo. He needs to be prosecuted for election fraud.”
.
or
.
“joe Bloggs was never a REform candidate or associated with the party. OCC made a mess up and heads must roll.”
.
or
.
“Joe Bloggs was originally our candidate but quit the party/we fired him before the election. That is why Reform did not field a candidate in that ward. The use of the logo was an oversight/too late to correct. Oopsy.”
.
I suspect the last option is what actually happened. Rather than clutching our pearls I suggest we just get a bag of popcorn and watch the fireworks.
I might be wrong, but my understanding is that Mr Cubby would have needed to provide a certificate of authorisation or similar from Reform for the party emblem to be used in the way it was on the ballot paper. https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/guidance-returning-officers-administering-local-government-elections-england/nominations/forms-nomination/use-party-names-and-party-descriptions
“Has a complaint been made to the returning officer?” As voters, we’re all at liberty to do that. I wonder how many of us have actually bothered.