Stoke-on-Trent City Council will overhaul its electoral process after a damning report found a series of issues with the way the May elections were handled.
The review conducted by the Association of Electoral Administrators found an error before the elections led to all the postal vote packs having to be reissued.
Staff sickness also meant a large number of students were appointed to act as counting assistants in the two or three days prior to polling day.
While the review concluded that none of the election results were affected by any of these issues and none of the candidates challenged the results, there were a number of administration issues, which needed to be addressed.
The local authority said it is now introducing a series of measures to improve the way it handles elections, including staffing structures and creating a project board to oversee future elections.
The council's assistant director for governance, Fiona Ledden, said: ‘There were a number of factors that contributed to that, and to all residents, candidates, agents and anyone else who may have been impacted by this, we sincerely apologise.’
