Postal votes expected to increase in Doncaster ahead of 2021 elections

Voters in May 2021 will cast up to three ballots for councillors per ward, one for an elected mayor and to choose a police and crime commissioner which was cancelled in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Residents in Edenthorpe will also vote on a referendum on their Neighborhood Plan while others who sit in parish areas will also cast ballots for parish councillors.

Voting will take place across the borough on Thursday, May 6 with councillor and mayoral votes being counted the following day.

Town and parish council votes will be counted on Saturday while the result of the county-wide PPC will be announced on Monday.

All votes in all elections will be tallied up at Doncaster Racecourse which has been booked out for the four days.

Election bosses have noted the impact of Covid-19 and staff will soon be recruited and trained in order to comply with the new arrangements and in dealing with an expected increase in postal votes.

Trina Barber, electoral services manager at Doncaster Council, said: “There is likely to be an increase in postal vote requests due to the pandemic, which will impact on sending application forms out, processing applications within the electoral services team, printing and despatch pressures on our print provider and the processing and sorting returned postal votes over a short period of time.

“Past elections have proved we have higher returns from postal voters compared to polling stations and will impact on the higher turnout of votes to count when there are five polls for some electors.

“Extra steps will need to be carried out to ensure polling stations are Covid compliant.

“This includes carrying out risk assessments to ensure the safety of those staff working and those electors voting in the polling station.”

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