Spreadsheet "issue" saw council miss 6,500 votes on election night

Wandsworth Council's returning officer has apologised after a technical issue resulted in 6,558 votes not being counted in the general election.

In a statement, the council said: "A spreadsheet issue resulted in not all the properly counted and allocated votes being included in the announcement on the night in the Putney election count."

The blunder did not affect the result of the election, which saw Labour's Fleur Anderson beat the second-place candidate by more than 10,000 votes on the night.

The council updated the figures on its website yesterday (17 July) - two weeks on from the election - after identifying the mistake.

"While we are confident this was an isolated incident we are taking this opportunity to review processes with a particular focus on spreadsheet procedures," the local authority said.

A spokesperson from Wandsworth added: "The Acting Returning Officer has apologised to all candidates and agents."

Under the updated figures, 49,295 people voted in the election out of 72,614 registered electors, a turnout of 67%.

Commenting on the news today (18 July), Fleur Anderson MP said she had been informed of the reasons for the errors in the process.

Adam Carey