VOTES for the county’s police and crime commissioner election had to be recounted on Saturday after some Conservative ballots were incorrectly recorded for the Liberal Democrats.
It is believed as many as 3,000 votes were incorrectly recorded at counting stations in Spennymoor and Stanley, although this has not been confirmed by official sources.
Labour Party candidate Joy Allen was ultimately elected to the post after second choice votes from Liberal Democrat ballots factored in.
She received 80,510 combined first and second choice votes ahead of the Conservative Party’s George Jabbour, who had 77,352 combined first and second choice votes.
Interim chief executive and police area returning officer John Hewitt said he requested the recount after election teams alerted him to discrepancies.
He added: “The total number of votes polled by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat candidates were incorrectly recorded on the final return sheet.
“Although this would not have changed the requirement to go to a second vote, I felt it was important to recount all of the votes in order to ensure confidence in the process.
“All candidates were consulted ahead of the announcement being made regarding the recount.”
It is the first time in the history of the county’s police and crime commissioner elections that the second-choice votes had to be counted.
In previous elections the Labour Party candidate enjoyed more than 50 per cent of the first-choice ballots, negating the need for the second-choice count.
The recount, as well as the second-choice count, resulted in a delay of the result by more than three hours.
This also impacted on the counting of Durham County Council election which should have been completed by about 6pm, but continued until about 11pm.
