Gen-Z voters told they are 100 years old in postal ballot blunder

The printing error affected 1,035 postal voters aged between 18 and 24 in Cambridge

Credit: Pete Titmuss/Alamy

A bungling council gave voters born after 2000 postal ballots with dates of birth in the 1900s.

Cambridge City Council emailed more than 1,000 postal voters aged between 18 and 24,telling them a printing error meant their ballots suggested they were aged between 118 and 124.

Postal voters must fill in their date of birth on their ballot. But the council pre-printed the first two digits as “19”. It has told the Gen Z voters their ballots will still be valid – if they cross out the “19” and replace it with a “20”. 

Chang Liu is a 22-year-old clinical medicine student at the University of Cambridge who received an erroneous ballot that would have prompted him to claim he was born in 1902.

He told The Telegraph: “It is ridiculous that a simple printing error threatens to disenfranchise thousands of young people. This mistake endangers the chances for democracies’ most crucial demographic,young people,to participate in a life-changing election.

“With so few young people regularly checking their email,I just hope that the returning officers’ warning has reached all those affected.”

The council said 1,035 voters had been affected by the error. The Electoral Commission confirmed it was a “local printing error” and said it was not aware of any other examples in Britain.

‘It will not impact validity’

A spokesman said: “We are aware of the issue. As the council says,if the voter writes their correct date of birth on the postal ballot statement,then it will not impact the validity of their vote.

“It is common practice for councils to pre-print the first two digits of the year of the voter’s date of birth on the postal vote statement. 

“This is to help ensure statements are correctly completed as voters often add the date they complete the statement,rather than their date of birth,which can invalidate a postal ballot.”

The council’s email to voters reads in full: “A printing issue with some postal votes means that the first two numbers in your date of birth year may have been pre-printed with a 19 instead of a 20. 

“I am very sorry that this has happened,and am investigating the circumstances that led to the error occurring so we can be sure it does not happen again.

“If this has affected you,please be assured that this does not in any way invalidate your postal vote. Please cross through the 19,and put a 20 above it. 

“Providing your date of birth and signature match the ones you provided in your application,your postal vote will be valid and included in the count. From Monday July 1 you can contact us to check whether it has been received and accepted.

“If you applied for a postal vote between June 6 and today (June 19),your postal vote will be issued on June 24 and this problem won’t affect you. We have contacted everyone on our postal vote list born between 2000 and 2006 to ensure we reach as many people as possible.”

Vicky Jenner,Cambridge City Council’s electoral services manager,said: “As per the email we have sent to those affected (1,035 electors) the postal votes can be used and will be accepted/counted as long as they meet all other requirements,for example the signature matches the elector’s original application.

“We are continuing to investigate how this happened,but it does not affect any subsequent postal vote issues we will undertake.”