Community | May 07, 2010 | 4 comments

Voting Nightmare, Sheffield Students Angry

source: http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/vote_2010/voter+eyewitness+apospolling+station+shamble...

Mcellie
There's a buzz of news about complaints that voting booths left many unable to vote, leaving large unhappy queues of potential voters. One question today is, will legal action take place to contest some results?

Polling stations will face criticism, since some are saying with large registration and polling card numbers, the staff should have prepared for a big turn out.

In Sheffield, students are angry and say there was 'discrimination', where it's said students were split into another line away from a 'resident fast track queue'. Students not bringing polling cards were blamed, however the post points out students argued you don't need the card and that a good number of students did take their polling card.

"Later he appeared to change his argument claiming that "students don’t bring their polling cards" - although the students told Channel 4 News that a vast majority did have their documents. It was also discriminative, the student said, since there is no legal requirement to bring the polling card in order to vote."-Channel 4 news.

In other areas like Hackney there were sit ins, reports some voting booths stayed opened after 10pm and one station apparently ran out of ballot papers. It was already stated last night the Electoral Commission will investigate the complaints made.
  1. groups:
    Community,   News and Politics,   Election 2010
  2. tags:
    Vote,  Hackney,  Sheffield,  UK Election,  3 more
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4 comments // Voting Nightmare, Sheffield Students Angry

  • sophosthegreat
    • 0
      sophosthegreat  

    • In Manchester Withington there were long queues all day, and it was not simply a case of people turning up close to 10pm so missing their chance to vote. Some people queued for over an hour and still didn't get through the queue to cast their vote. After they closed the polls at 10 they then called the police to move people on.

      Pretty undemocratic considering reports of some Birmingham polling stations holding lock-ins so that those who started queuing before 10pm could cast their vote.

      I fail to see how it is the fault of the voter that the appointed polling stations could not handle demand, if you turn up within the designated time you should be entitled to cast your vote.

    • 2 years ago
  • OrbViper
  • sophosthegreat
    • 0
      sophosthegreat  
    • OrbViper:

      It sure does, my student brother was there and was in the background of some BBC footage of angry people not getting to vote. He queued for over an hour before being removed. Yes I know he should have gone down in the morning, but nobody foresaw that this would happen and I don't think people realised they would just shut down the polling stations with people still waiting to vote.

    • 2 years ago
  • Mcellie
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