Voters in the all-postal voting pilot areas must receive the ballot packs by June 1 at the latest, but only one in three local councils in the pilot areas has sent out the documents.
In a statement to the House of Commons yesterday, Christopher Leslie, Minister for Constitutional Affairs, said that "technical issues with data processing and printing machines" at software company Opt2Vote and its print partner Paragon Group UK had caused the delays.
Worst hit was the East Midlands, where just 13 out of 40 councils had been able to deliver their ballot packs to the Royal Mail.
Other areas affected by the delays were the North West, the North East and Yorkshire and the Humber. In total, of 127 local councils in the four regions, 49 were still printing their ballot packs on 27 May.
Leslie said that spare printing capacity elsewhere in the country had been utilised to offset the problems at Opt2Vote.
He said that all the affected local councils "remain on track for issuing ballot packs by next Tuesday 1st June, in accordance with the regulations. "He also reported that delays had occurred at another unnamed printer after the firm's managing director was taken ill.
A statement issued by Opt2Vote put the delays down to the "exacting standards that we have set for the production of the ballot packs".
Voters have until 8 June to post the ballot packs to their regional Returning Officers in time for the June 10 election day. The packs contain three envelopes, two ballot papers and a declaration-of-identity card.
Opt2Vote is located in Derry, Northern Ireland and Uxbridge, Middlesex. Paragon Group UK is based in Castleford, Yorkshire.
