I WAS disappointed with the quality of the article in last week’s Herald regarding the report I prepared reviewing the running of the 2015 elections.

It contained two glaring errors.

First, the finding of the Electoral Commission regarding the failure to meet its standard relating to polling stations was in relation to South Oxfordshire only. The Electoral Commission did not raise any concerns about the way the elections were administered in the Vale of White Horse area.

Second, the article states the counts for the parliamentary seats were held up, the inference being that this was because of the time taken to enable everyone to vote at Willowbrook Leisure Centre in Didcot. This is completely inaccurate; there were no hold-ups to the parliamentary counts they simply took a long time because of their complexity, something I had been at pains to warn candidates and the media about beforehand.

I think your readers would agree that accuracy is more important than speed when it comes to declaring who has won an election.

I would like to think that the media would welcome my decision to publish a report – which I am under no obligation to do – that throws some light on the process of running elections.

My willingness to acknowledge that some things did not go well displays an openness shared by very few of my fellow returning officers. Yes, there was a problem with queues at two polling stations in one location in Didcot. There wasn’t at the other 230 spread across South and Vale.

Let’s put this in perspective: these were by far the most complex elections my team and I have ever run with a unique combination of parliamentary, district and parish elections. Looked at in the round they were a huge success.

David Buckle
Returning officer
South and Vale district councils