A COUPLE claim they were disenfranchised in yesterday’s York council elections because of a bureaucratic blunder.

Caroline Milne, of Huntington Road, said she and her husband Gareth applied in good time to vote by post for both the referendum and City of York Council elections.

On April 14, they each received letters from the authority which seemed contradictory, confirming they could vote by post, but not making clear whether this was for both the election and referendum.

She claimed after calling the council a member of staff confirmed they were both definitely registered to vote by post in both, and they needed to do nothing else.

“We received our referendum ballot papers this week, but not the local council ballot papers,” she said. “When I phoned the council to check, they confirmed the council election ballot papers would be sent separately.”

After failing to receive anything by Wednesday, she called the council and was eventually told she had been given incorrect information previously but there was nothing anyone could do.

“I feel the council have taken away our right to vote through these errors,” she said. She wondered whether the election result could be affected if many other people had similar problems.

City of York Council said unfortunately Mrs Milne had only applied for a postal vote for the alternative vote referendum, using the dedicated application form for a referendum postal vote. “The referendum is being run nationally and is completely separate to the local elections taking place in York,” said a spokeswoman. “The letter received by Mrs Milne on April 14 confirmed that she had applied for a postal vote for the referendum only.

“We would like to apologise if Mrs Milne feels that the information she received when she called the elections office was unclear or incorrect. We try to ensure every one of the 152,931 people registered to vote in York receive the correct information to enable them to vote.”