BIRMINGHAM, England, April 14 (UPI) -- A legal uproar swept England Thursday when about 1,000 uncounted ballots from last June's local elections were found in a Birmingham electoral office.
The discovery was triggered by a Birmingham city council member, who received a tip Tuesday from a staff member in the elections office that the box was in an archive room, The Telegraph reported.
Chief Elections Officer John Owen was immediately suspended as fraud squad officers attempted to determine how and why the mail-in ballots were never opened and then hidden.
While they have yet to be opened, the ballots are believed unlikely to have influenced a result, the newspaper said.
However, the incident is sure to raise more questions about the vulnerability of the postal voting system, recently criticized as an "open invitation to fraud" by an election court judge.
It also sets back government officials trying to restore public faith in the run-up to next month's general election.
