Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council rejected her postal vote at the local elections in 2022. We could not add to any previous investigation by the Council.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained the Council rejected her postal vote when she used it at the local elections in 2022. She also says she complained about this on several occasions and the Council failed to respond.
2. She says this has caused her frustration and she was prevented from using her right to vote.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement;
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation; or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. After the local elections in 2022, Mrs X received a letter from the Council telling her it had rejected her postal vote because her signature and date of birth did not match.
7. Mrs X says complained three times between May and October but heard nothing and so she complained to the Ombudsman. The Council informed us it had not received any communications from Mrs X but would now respond to her.
8. The Council informed Mrs X that it had made an administrative error and recorded her date of birth incorrectly. It apologised for its error, said it had amended its records, and explained the service improvements it had made to prevent a reoccurrence. Further investigation by the Ombudsman is unlikely to achieve anything more.
9. Mrs X says she contacted the Council three times but received no response. The Council says it did not receive any correspondence from Mrs X. I will not investigate this. Mrs X has now received a response from the Council. Therefore, any injustice is not significant enough to warrant our involvement.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because further investigation by the Ombudsman is unlikely to add anything meaningful to the Council’s investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman