People can re-register to vote by post but concerns remain over cyber attack

Postal voters in Gloucester have been asked to register again after their records were wiped out during the cyber attack in December.

Gloucester City Council’s register to vote service is available again and they say all waiting applications have already been dealt with.

Those who have not submitted an application to re-register are being asked now to reapply to ensure that they can continue to vote by post.

The council says the electoral register has been recovered but the local authority has not been able to recover postal vote applications that were previously submitted by voters.

Councillors have raised serious concerns about the impact the cyber attack has had on the council services including the electoral register.

And a council meeting in July was told that people’s private information including bank details, signatures, addresses and national insurance numbers had been accessed by hackers.

The council is now writing to every postal voter asking them to fill in an application form included with the letter and return it in the pre-paid envelope. Any queries should be sent to .

Since the cyber incident, most of the council’s services that were affected have been restored including the ‘Report It’ service that allows issues to be reported like fly-tipping or overgrown vegetation.

The local land charge system that is used to carry out searches for prospective homeowners was restored in June.

Gloucester City Council returning officer Jon McGinty said: “We apologise for the inconvenience to voters but we would urge them not to delay in returning their new postal vote application form so that we can make sure they can continue to vote by post at future elections.”

By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter

Gloucester News Centre – http://gloucesternewscentre.co.uk