Well, what happened last night, with voters being turned away, is basically a disgrace, and it is 3th world politics.
With the Twitter and youtube have provided plenty of clips and pic of the problems.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShT07Syk-eQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxLwlNRal_c
It does beg the question why did some area, bring everyone into the polling station and lock the doors while other places do the opposite with the polling station telling people to get lost?
It seem that Electoral Commission has some tough questions to ask, but that Chairwoman Jenny Watson has change her tune from last night, She was SMUG and standing by the law last night, now she being more weary and asking people to get in touch!
Where My vote?????
I heard that in the worst affected places the queuing was getting bad by 5pm. Considering a lot of people have places to be such as work, it does make you wonder what really went wrong.Ant wrote:They shouldn't have turned up so late to vote then. It was made pretty clear polling stations closed at 10pm.
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Gavin Scott
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If you're late, you're late.
Some things are silly - like not printing enough ballot papers - but idiots turning up at 10 to 10 are idiots.
No one who turned up at 5 were turned away. I went out and voted at 6pm.
Some things are silly - like not printing enough ballot papers - but idiots turning up at 10 to 10 are idiots.
No one who turned up at 5 were turned away. I went out and voted at 6pm.
Yes, and if you haven't got a ballot paper in your hand by 10pm then you aren't supposed to be given one, and yet in some places that has happened.nidave wrote:Isn't it a legal requirement to close at 10pm exactly.
It seems different things went wrong in different places, lots of silly people turning up late but lots of polling stations being overwhelmed, which shouldn't happen.
Certainly running out of ballot papers is unacceptable, there should be enough printed for every person on the register. Printing the number that they think they'll need based on predicted turnout just isn't on. In the light of what happened yesterday I would like to see it made a legal requirement that this is what happens from now on. Equally, the story of the voting register not having been updated with new registrations is unforgiveable and there needs to be checks in place to ensure that the register on the desk in the polling station is bang up to date.
However I'm afraid I don't have a great deal of sympathy with people who were turned away. The polling stations were open for *15 HOURS* between 7AM-10PM. I can't imagine anyone who didn't have a decent chunk of that time with which to vote, but if commitments did mean anyone would be cutting it fine then they could have requested a postal vote (you don't need to meet any special criteria to do so).
What seems to have happened is a rush of people turning up in the last few minutes assuming that no one else would have the same idea (and in some cases a rush of people turning up around 8PM but who couldn't be bothered to queue so went home and came back in the last few minutes - again rather stupidly assuming that no one else would think to do the same thing). If you're going to take the risk of turning up at the last minute then you have to accept that you may not be able to vote.
What *is* scandalous however is that the officials didn't appear to know just what they were supposed to do, with some closing the doors at 10PM, some letting everyone in the building by 10PM vote, some who had allready been issued with a ballot paper allowed to vote, and some staying open until everyone had voted.
Particularly shameful was an instance where an official faced with the possibility of not getting through everyone and dealing with a large number of student voters decided to segregate the students away and give the local residents priority - effectively taking it upon himself to give some electors status over others which is wholy undemocratic (and surely illegal?).
And perhaps worst of all as David Dimbleby wryly noted is that returning officers in affected constituencies won't be held to account for what has happened.
Whilst I don't have much sympathy for those affected, if you are going to deny someone the right to vote because they're too late then there needs to be a 100% cast iron procedure in place which is followed to the letter to deal with this situation to ensure that all late voters are treated the same. Certainly, the shambles that ensued last night should never happen again.
However I'm afraid I don't have a great deal of sympathy with people who were turned away. The polling stations were open for *15 HOURS* between 7AM-10PM. I can't imagine anyone who didn't have a decent chunk of that time with which to vote, but if commitments did mean anyone would be cutting it fine then they could have requested a postal vote (you don't need to meet any special criteria to do so).
What seems to have happened is a rush of people turning up in the last few minutes assuming that no one else would have the same idea (and in some cases a rush of people turning up around 8PM but who couldn't be bothered to queue so went home and came back in the last few minutes - again rather stupidly assuming that no one else would think to do the same thing). If you're going to take the risk of turning up at the last minute then you have to accept that you may not be able to vote.
What *is* scandalous however is that the officials didn't appear to know just what they were supposed to do, with some closing the doors at 10PM, some letting everyone in the building by 10PM vote, some who had allready been issued with a ballot paper allowed to vote, and some staying open until everyone had voted.
Particularly shameful was an instance where an official faced with the possibility of not getting through everyone and dealing with a large number of student voters decided to segregate the students away and give the local residents priority - effectively taking it upon himself to give some electors status over others which is wholy undemocratic (and surely illegal?).
And perhaps worst of all as David Dimbleby wryly noted is that returning officers in affected constituencies won't be held to account for what has happened.
Whilst I don't have much sympathy for those affected, if you are going to deny someone the right to vote because they're too late then there needs to be a 100% cast iron procedure in place which is followed to the letter to deal with this situation to ensure that all late voters are treated the same. Certainly, the shambles that ensued last night should never happen again.
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Steve in Pudsey
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If you turned up at 10 to 10 then I've not got too much sympathy, but certainly in Sheffield there were stories of people having queued for an hour and a half and being turned away.Gavin Scott wrote:If you're late, you're late.
Some things are silly - like not printing enough ballot papers - but idiots turning up at 10 to 10 are idiots.
No one who turned up at 5 were turned away. I went out and voted at 6pm.
If the allegation of students and "locals" being segregated and the latter being given precedence is true then that is scandalous, given that students may well be expected to vote in a different way to the local residents. The result of the seat absolutely has to be declared null and void and a by election called, and it mustn't take place before September when the students are back.
It was a move by unionised council workers to get the Lib Dems out and get Labour back in.
It worked.
It worked.