A BUILDER found scores of polling cards ditched in a skip just weeks before the recent Oxfordshire County Council elections, it emerged last night.

An investigation is under way after Mark Newman, 37, from Marcham, near Abingdon, found the cards in Harpes Road, Sunnymead, Oxford, on May 15 — almost three weeks before the June 4 poll.

He immediately passed them to police and alerted Oxford City Council, the organisation responsible for administering the election within the city.

But last night, the Town Hall admitted it had no idea how the cards ended up in the skip.

Mr Newman said: “I was clearing up at the end of the day, putting rubbish in the skip. It was about 3.30pm and I noticed this plastic bag, which wasn’t there earlier.

“It was just sitting up top of the rubbish. Whoever dump- ed it, hadn’t tried to hide it.

“They were easily 100 cards inside the bag. They had people’s names and addresses on them so I took them to the police station in Abingdon — I felt it was my duty.

“I wasn’t going to leave them lying around. They could have easily fallen into the wrong hands.”

Thames Valley Police said it passed the polling cards to the city council, the authority responsible for delivering polling cards in the city, and understood it was carrying out an investigation.

City council spokesman Chris Lee said approximately 200 cards had been handed in.

He said: “The polling cards were duplicates for the Summertown and Wolvercote division, which were printed in error. As they were duplicates, all the recipients had already received their polling cards.

“We do not know how these duplicates ended up in a skip.

“We will be carrying out a full post-election review, which will include all issues surrounding poll card delivery.”

Oxfordshire County Council spokesman Paul Smith added: “It is obviously desirable that these circumstances are investigated.”

The incident emerged after a police investigation into alleged voting irregularities in East Oxford.

As previously reported in the Oxford Mail, it is understood one voter turned up on polling day to find someone had already voted for him, and the matter was referred to the police.

Last night, a police spokes- man said the investigation was still in its “early stages”.

Former Green Party county councillor Sushila Dhall is also bidding to force a re-run of the election for West Central Oxford.

She claimed hundreds of polling cards were not delivered to voters in the division.

Ms Dhall lost by 128 votes to Liberal Democrat Alan Armitage for the seat.

tshepherd@oxfordmail.co.uk