BBC's Humphrys: "My vote was stolen"

John Humphrys, a presenter of Radio 4's flagship Today show, revealed this morning that a voting irregularity prevented him from casting his vote in yesterday's General Election.

"I for the first time in my life was denied a vote yesterday," Humphrys revealed during an interview with Sam Younger, chairman of the Electoral Commission. "I was unable to vote because somebody has apparently, allegedly applied for a postal ballot on my behalf. I certainly didn't. I hate postal voting unless you've absolutely no choice."

Humphrys continued:

"I went along to cast my ballot and took my little boy to show him how democracy works in action and what happened? I couldn't vote. They said you've already voted. I hadn't already voted. But the very fact of applying, even though I hadn't personally applied for a postal ballot, meant the presumption that I had voted. Disgraceful."

Younger had already admitted on the programme that "postal voting has knocked the public's confidence in the system," a fact that was also discussed on TV coverage of the election in the early hours of Friday morning. Younger explained: "Of course the reason for that is to prevent people who applied for a postal vote from going to a polling station and voting a second time. So there are obviously some issues there that need to be sorted out."

Humphrys responded: "So my vote was stolen!"

After the interview, Mariella Frostrup called Radio 4 to report that she had also been unable to vote for the same reason.

"I was apoplectic, as you can imagine," the TV presenter said.