A council has dismissed concerns over an error on ballot paper envelopes for Thursday’s European elections.

Resident Peter Escott contacted the Times after realising the electoral number on his ballot paper didn’t match that on his ballot paper envelope.

He said: “It’s going to be quite important so it needs to be spot on from the beginning.”

But a Braintree Council spokesman said: “The local returning officer is aware that a small number of ballot paper envelopes do not match the ballot paper and postal voting statement numbers. This was as a result of human error.

“The elector’s vote is in no way compromised as the ballot paper envelope is used for the voter’s convenience and once the vote is returned it will go through the adjudication process to ensure that the ballot paper and postal voting statement match to enable the vote to be counted.

“The number on the envelope is never used to exclude any elector’s vote.”

It is not known exactly how many people have been affected, but it is believed to be fewer than 100.

There are 16,000 postal votes in the Braintree district.