HUNDREDS of residents in Oxford East could be left without a voice on election day because their postal vote packs were not sent out on time.

A total of 657 were sent out late by Oxford City Council and delays could have been made worse by the Bank Holiday weekend.

Some voters fear they will be left without a voice tomorrow. Nearly 7,000 people registered for a postal vote in the constituency and the vast majority had been sent out by first class post on Tuesday last week.

But 657 were not sent until Friday, after they were mistakenly returned to the council by its contractor, Electoral Reform Services. Some had still not arrived yesterday.

In 2005, Labour candidate Andrew Smith’s margin of victory in Oxford East was only 963 votes. Residents must return their postal votes to the council by 10pm on Thursday for them to be counted.

John Wallington, 72, and his wife Susan, 64, from Barton had still not received voting packs yesterday. He said: “I don’t know if we will just lose our vote. We have been phoning the council for days and they said they sent it out by first class post.

“Now I don’t know what’s going on. Can’t they afford the stamps?”

Mr Wallington, a retired heating engineer, said they had registered for postal votes as they found it difficult to get to a polling station.

Prof Peter Jezzard, of Headington, received his ballot paper on Saturday, less than 24 hours before he set off to a conference in Sweden.

The Oxford University academic said: “I only just got mine in time and was fearful I wasn’t going to get one at all. It was a bit close.”

Jeremy Thomas, the returning officer at Oxford City Council, said: “We’re confident the vast majority of voting packs will have arrived on Saturday, but we can reissue postal votes until 5pm on Thursday and they can be handed into polling stations until 10pm.”

l Voters in the Oxford East constituency who have not received their postal ballot packs should call the city council elections office on 01865 252987.