Government ‘urgently’ investigating general election postal ballot delays
The government is “urgently” investigating why some people have not yet received their postal ballots ahead of Thursday’s election.
Conservative minister Maria Caulfield told Sky News she is aware of “a number of” constituencies where people have not yet received their postal votes.
There are reports of thousands of postal ballots not being delivered in time, with postal affairs minister Kevin Hollinrake calling on Royal Mail “to do all they can” to make sure postal votes get to people in time.
More than 90 constituencies, including those of Cabinet ministers, have raised concerns about ballots failing to arrive, according to The Telegraph.
Follow live general election updates
Ms Caulfield told Sky News: “Kevin [Hollinrake] is taking this very seriously. He’s in direct contact with the Royal Mail.
“Kevin is investigating this urgently.
“I know there’s extra resources going into this to try and do a sweep of all the sorting offices and make sure they’re out there.”
Ms Caulfield added that those who will be at home on polling day this Thursday and have received a postal vote late can take them to their local polling station.
However, she said it is a concern for those who are away as the deadline to apply for a proxy vote, where someone else is allowed to vote on your behalf, has passed.
Postal ballots will amount to about 40% of votes this year. Pic: iStock
Read more:
Five things the main parties aren’t talking about this election
Manifesto Checker: What are the parties’ key pledges?
There are specific concerns for voters in Scotland as schools broke up for the summer holidays on Friday so many families have already left the country.
Senior SNP Stephen Flynn told Sky News the situation was a “shambles” and said his party had warned the Conservatives not to hold the election now as so many families in Scotland would be on holiday.
He said the government told them they could vote by post so the fact they have not received their ballots in time is “outrageous” and could affect the outcome of the vote where seats are tight.
He said the blame “lies at Sunak’s doorstep”.
Postal ballots will amount to about 40% of votes this year. Pic: iStock
At the last general election, in 2019, 21% of people voted by post.
That number is expected to have increased by 20%, with more than 1.3 million postal vote applications made between 22 May and 19 June, according to the Local Government Association.
A spokesman said: “This unprecedented increase adds more pressure to an already complex process and overburdened system.
“Councils and electoral staff across the country have been doing their utmost to ensure the smooth running of this election and that people can vote.
“We are aware of reports of incidents where delays have happened. The postal vote system could benefit from review and more could be done to support Royal Mail and printers to be ready to deliver elections.”
? Tap here to follow Politics at Jack and Sam’s wherever you get your podcasts ?
The deadline to register to vote by post was 19 June, with ballots normally arriving around a week before polling day.
Postal votes have to arrive by 10pm on polling day.
A group of investors has filed a class-action lawsuit against decentralized cryptocurrency exchange Meteora, alleging the firm was involved in manipulating the launch and market price of the M3M3 token.
In an amended complaint filed on April 21 in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the plaintiffs allege that venture capital firm Kelsier Labs, Meteora, and four current or former executives “intentionally misrepresented” information in the M3M3 launch in December 2024.
The investors claimed that they suffered at least $69 million in losses between December 2024 and February 2025 after the parties presented “trusted leaders in the Solana ecosystem” as being behind the token launch, rather than a “blatant fraud” in which sales were manipulated to artificially inflate the price.
“This artificially-inflated valuation communicated highly misleading information to non-insider investors, who reasonably relied on Defendants’ representations that the $M3M3 launch was fully accessible to the public and conducted in a transparent manner fair to non-insider investors, and thus reasonably relied on $M3M3 market price as a meaningful measure of its value,” the complaint reads. “The post-launch price spike also served to corroborate Defendants’ aggressively-marketed, but misleading, assertions that $M3M3 had intrinsic value and a comparatively low risk profile.”
The lawsuit is one of many involving different crypto firms that have alleged fraud through violations of US securities laws. Though the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), under acting chair Mark Uyeda since US President Donald Trump took office, has scaled back or dismissed many enforcement actions involving digital assets, the agency said in February it still intended to pursue cases against fraudulent token projects.
The investors added:
“Together, Defendants designed the $M3M3 Token and planned its launch on Meteora in a manner intended to illicitly enrich themselves at the expense of the unsuspecting investing public.”
Related: Meteora says co-founder’s X account hacked after ‘parasitic’ memecoin post
Memecoins in the Solana ecosystem
Meteora has been tied to the launch of several high-profile yet controversial tokens, including those for Trump (TRUMP), his wife Melania (MELANIA), Libra (LIBRA), and online influencer Haliey Welch (HAWK).
According to the lawsuit, the firm “purported to offer a comprehensive solution to the problems in the memecoin investment market” with the launch of M3M3. The defendants in the case allegedly attempted to distinguish the token from other notable memecoins by highlighting the “legitimacy and trustworthiness” through the involvement of Meteora co-founder Ben Chow and the platform.
Kelsier Ventures, KIP Protocol, and Meteora face a similar class-action lawsuit filed in New York in March over LIBRA allegedly being launched in a “deceptive, manipulative and fundamentally unfair” manner. Argentine President Javier Milei briefly promoted the token over social media after his sister reportedly received payments from the project.
Magazine: Memecoin degeneracy is funding groundbreaking anti-aging research
More than 70 cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are slated for review by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this year. According to Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas, the list includes proposed ETFs holding a range of assets, from altcoins to memecoins to derivatives instruments.
“Everything from XRP, Litecoin and Solana to Penguins, Doge and 2x Melania and everything in between,” Balchunas said in an April 21 post on the X platform. “Gonna be a wild year.”
Related: ARK adds staked Solana to two tech ETFs
Uncertain institutional demand
The planned funds listings come as institutional investors turn increasingly bullish on crypto as an asset class.
Upward of 80% of institutions say they plan to increase allocations to crypto in 2025, according to a March report by Coinbase and EY-Parthenon.
However, analysts caution that just because ETFs are approved for US listings doesn’t guarantee widespread adoption, especially for funds holding more obscure alternative cryptocurrencies.
“Having your coin get ETF-ized is like being in a band and getting your songs added to all the music streaming services,” Balchunas said.
“Doesn’t guarantee listens but it puts your music where the vast majority of the listeners are.”
Sygnum Bank’s research head, Katalin Tischhauser, told Cointelegraph she expects altcoin ETFs to see cumulative inflows of several hundred million to $1 billion, far less than spot Bitcoin funds.
Funds holding Bitcoin (BTC) — the first spot cryptocurrency approved for listing in a US ETF wrapper — attracted upward of $100 billion in net assets last year.
However, ETFs using options and other derivatives to provide structured exposure to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether might see more institutional uptake, analysts said.
Options on spot cryptocurrencies unlock numerous potential portfolio strategies for investors and could potentially catalyze “explosive” price upside for digital assets such as Bitcoin, Jeff Park, Bitwise Invest’s head of alpha strategies, said in September.
Options are contracts granting the right to buy or sell an underlying asset at a certain price.
On April 21, ARK Invest added exposure to staked Solana (SOL) to two of its existing ETFs. The asset manager said it marks the first time spot SOL has been available to US investors in an ETF.
Magazine: ‘Bitcoin layer 2s’ aren’t really L2s at all: Here’s why that matters
New filings from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) reveal that several cryptocurrency firms and their executives made significant contributions to US President Donald Trump’s inauguration fund after the results of the 2024 election.
According to FEC filings made public on April 20 by the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee, Uniswap CEO Hayden Adams donated more than $245,000, Solana Labs donated $1 million, and software firm Consensys sent $100,000 in January 2025 to support the then-president-elect’s inauguration. Many major crypto firms had previously announced their support of Trump through donations to the inaugural fund, including Coinbase, Ripple Labs, Kraken, Ondo Finance, and Robinhood.
Altogether, the fund reported more than $239 million in net donations between Nov. 15 and April 20 from companies and individuals. These included $1 million from McDonald’s, $1 million from Meta, $1 million from Apple CEO Tim Cook, $1 million from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and various contributions from Delta Air Lines, ExxonMobil, FedEx, Nvidia, PayPal, Target, and Coca-Cola.
Since Trump took office on Jan. 20 and appointed Mark Uyeda as acting chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the agency has dropped multiple investigations and enforcement actions against crypto firms, including those that donated to the president’s 2024 campaign or inauguration fund. In February, Uniswap reported that the SEC had dropped its probe into the firm, and Consensys founder Joseph Lubin said the agency had agreed to end a separate lawsuit.
Memecoins, stablecoin issuers, and future elections
Trump’s memecoin, launched on Jan. 17 on the Solana blockchain — along with his wife Melania’s, which was available a few days later — has many in the crypto industry and the US government questioning the president about conflicts of interest by capitalizing on his position. The president’s family is also behind the launch of World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm responsible for a US dollar-pegged stablecoin at a time when lawmakers are considering legislation to regulate the technology.
In addition to the Consensys case, the SEC said it intended to drop enforcement actions or investigations into Ripple, Kraken, Robinhood and Coinbase. The three firms donated a combined $9 million to the inauguration fund.
Related: Trump’s next crypto play will be Monopoly-style game — Report
The 2024 US election cycle saw crypto-backed political action committees (PACs) spending more than $131 million to influence races in crucial congressional districts. The Fairshake PAC has already said it had more than $100 million available, in part from contributions from Coinbase and Ripple, to spend on the 2026 midterms.
Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway