AN ELECTION official's mistake led to 79 votes in the local elections being declared invalid.
One of the presiding officers for Sutton Ward made an error when handing out the ballot papers in the borough council elections on Thursday.
As a result he's been told he won't be involved in any future polls in Ellesmere Port or Neston.
However, his mistake did not influence the outcome of the vote in Sutton, which was comfortably won by Conservative Kimberley Anderson.
She polled 613 votes, compared to 472 for Labour candidate Tamara Hill who was defending the seat. Turnout was 26.8%.
At Thursday night's count in the Civic Hall, borough council chief executive and returning officer Stephen Ewbank said there had been 100 spoilt or rejected ballot papers for the ward.
This was vastly at odds with the spoilt papers in other wards, which ranged between two and 26.
No explanation was given at the time, although Mr Ewbank consulted both candidates and party agents about it before he officially announced the results.
It is believed the presiding officer might have accidentally passed the stub of the ballot papers to the voters instead of retaining them for registration purposes.
Speaking after the count, Mr Ewbank told the Pioneer: 'It is a matter of regret that in the poll for Sutton Ward, as a result of a genuine mistake by one of my presiding officers, I had to declare that 79 votes were invalid. It is fortunate the result of the election for Sutton ward was not affected.
'This was accepted by both party agents and candidates, to whom I have offered my sincere apologies.'
He added: 'The system employed for the administration of the election has served us well over many years, but on this occasion human error caused it to fail.
'The responsible presiding officer has been informed that he will not be involved in any future elections.'
With the 79 ballots declared invalid, it means the remaining 21 were simply spoilt papers.
Local Labour election agent Gareth Gould said: 'We are happy not to challenge the decision.'
