A Tory hopeful's election dream has been tainted with a typo on the ballot paper after he submitted nomination papers with his own name spelt wrong.
Conservative MP candidate Jack Gebhard, who is standing against Labour's Ian Lavery in the Northumberland ward of Wansbeck, was shocked to see a letter missing from his middle name on the polling cards.
The 26-year-old's name is missing an 'n' and appears as 'Jack Alexader Gebhard'.
Morpeth town councillor and former Mayor Mr Gebhard moved to reassure voters that the votes would still be valid and said the council had spelt wrong on the ballot paper.
But Northumberland County Council said the wording on the ballot paper "is lifted directly and exactly from the nomination papers submitted by the candidate and his election agent".
The mistake was discovered when Mr Gebhard received a message querying the validity of the vote.
He said: "I just want to get the message out there because people were contacting me worrying that it would invalidate the vote.
"I'm still not sure how it's happened, it's probably just a typo somewhere but I didn't want people to be worried.
"It’s not a problem as we’ve checked the validity of it and that’s fine."
When contacted about the issue, a county council spokesperson said: "The wording that appears on the ballot paper is taken from the information contained in the statement of persons nominated published by the Acting Returning Officer.
"What appears on the statement, is lifted directly and exactly from the nomination papers submitted by the candidate and his election agent. "
After seeing the council's statement, Mr Gebhard said: "I’m not sure how it has happened but the important thing for voters to know is that the vote is still valid.
"A Conservative vote in Wansbeck is still a vote to get Brexit done."
This is the first time Mr Gebhard has stood in a general election, after serving as a local councillor for more than two years.
He said: "I got involved in politics because I wanted to make a difference to my area and get involved with young people's issues.
"One of the biggest things I've been focusing on is mental health, because it's something that affects young people massively."
The following candidates are standing in the Wansbeck ward:
Wansbeck
Michael Flynn (Christian People's Alliance)
Jack Gebhard (Conservative)
Ian Lavery (Labour)
Steve Leyland (Green)
Stephen Psallidas (Liberal Democrat)
Eden Webley (Brexit Party)
