POSTAL voters were yesterday still waiting for their ballot papers less than 48 hours before polling opens in the General Election.

Between 50-60 people in the Oxford West and Abingdon were said to be affected by the problem and council staff had to hand deliver some papers.

Postal votes must be returned to election officials before polls close at 10pm tomorrow.

But yesterday some voters had still not received their ballot papers and staff at Oxford City Council and Vale of White Horse District Council were forced to deliver papers in person over the weekend.

Isabel Tucker from Jericho, had to go to Oxford Town Hall to vote in person.

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She said: “I applied for a postal vote two weeks ago and I got a letter saying I had been successful. I have tried to phone various people at the councils and I was eventually told to go to the Town Hall on Tuesday at 1pm to cast my vote. But it is the principle of the thing. This is a highly marginal constituency and if people do not have their papers they cannot vote. I think it is absolutely outrageous, both on my own behalf and on behalf of the democratic process.”

Summertown resident Esther Howard and her daughters Lottie and Georgia also did not receive postal ballots despite applying within the deadline.

She got in touch with Vale of White Horse District Council over the weekend and spoke to a member of staff on yesterday morning who arranged for the three women to vote at Oxford Town Hall yesterday afternoon.

She said: “You should not have to register, then apply to vote by post and then go chasing around to get ballots.”

Postal votes for all parts of the Oxford West and Abingdon constituency are dealt with by Vale of White Horse District Council.

Oxford City Council has stepped in to help those who live in the city and have not received a ballot paper in the election by allowing them to vote at Oxford Town Hall.

Vale of White Horse District Council returning officer David Buckle said between 50 and 60 people were affected.

He said: “We had had very few reports of people having problems with postal votes in the Vale of White Horse bit of of the constituency. We have had a few issues in Oxford. It seems that for whatever reason some of the postal votes were delayed for people there. In the scheme of things when you are issuing more than 50,000 ballot packs that is not very many. As far as I can see our process for issuing postal ballots has been fine. It seems some have been held up in the post.”

Mr Buckle said people who still had not received their papers should contact Vale of White Horse District Council or Oxford City Council, and staff would do all they could to help them vote.

Royal Mail spokesman Rhys Jones said the company is looking into the problems as a matter of urgency.