Reports of Queues of people unable to vote?

[AtticusFinch 10]

I voted at Duchess Road polling station in Highfield at about 21:45 (been working away today). When I arrived there were no other voters there. The guy organising the voting told me I was the 1000th voter at that polling station, and that at local elections they normally only have around 250.

[Greenie78 10]

We voted in Heeley at 1pm - only 2 other people there.

 

That's because most people are at work at that time of the day

[JFKvsNixon 11]

POSTAL VOTE!

 

Why didn't you plan ahead?

 

I thought that I would have had enough time after work to vote, as I said I was lucky enough to get off at 18:30.

[ECCOnoob 1,043]

Feel sorry for those who could not vote but I just cant understand it. How can it take so long?

 

Went to ecclesfield polling station about 9.00pm - about 5 people in front of me and a few behind in the queue. Passed em my registration cards - they gave me two pieces of paper - put cross on and put in box.... was in and out within a minute.

 

Are people just holding up the system or something???

[biotechpete 10]

queued for over 1/2 hr to vote in Sheff Central. Very worrying that this is repeated in other cities too. Very worrying indeed.

[SYorksDeano 10]

Statement from the council

 

 

News Statement

 

6 May 2010

 

John Mothersole, Returning Officer for Sheffield, apologised to residents who were unable to vote in Sheffield today.

 

He said: “We got this wrong and I would like to apologise.

 

“We were faced with a difficult situation with the numbers of people, and a large amount of students turning up to vote without polling cards. This made the administration process of ensuring the correct person was given a ballot paper much longer.

 

“The only remedy, which we could not take, was to extend the voting times.”

 

Ends

[chem1st 10]

Well it looks like alot of people have missed out on their vote due to the queues.

 

legal challenege mentioned on bbc - they extended in south africa so why not here?

 

imagine the press in the next few days...the star will love this

 

When they report it in June

[maggi 10]

I queued for 40 minutes in the pouring rain at Woodseats Library to vote (after working in Derby all day) and got in at about 21:40. The queue behind me was at least as long as when I'd joined it.

 

I've never seen anything like this before.

[Funky_Gibbon 42]

When you consider people have to go to work the average time to finish is 5 - 6pm with the size of the place you have to vote in im not surprised things have gone pear shaped.

 

So has our Lib-Dem council sabotaged their own party by choosing inadequately sized venues for the polling stations?

[sunny30 10]

I voted at hallam (millhouses methodist church) , came out from work and waiting for 45 mins at about 8pm, hubby went at 7pm but needed to drop/pick up the children and so couldnt wait that long, he tried again at 9pm but Q was still very long and he couldnt wait with the children. There were only two people processing the people and so it seemed very slow.

[RJK3 10]

Why didn't you sign up to post your vote?

 

Why would I expect such electoral incompetence? And how could I anticipate that my wife would become seriously ill? Postal voting ended before she turned for the worse.

 

In my time as a polling official in Australia I've never seen anything like this - the few times there were still voters lining up, we would process them (but prevent anyone new from joining the queue after the closing time). Here, police came and told everyone to leave and that voting ended at 10pm - to the booing of the hundreds still waiting to vote, people who had crammed into the building expecting to still have their vote counted.

 

The idea is to have enough polling stations to support the expected population in various areas. It is quite unreasonable to suggest that voters should use the postal vote system as a matter of course, as it is inefficient and only for people who can't make the polling station on the day. This was a problem seeded long ago, when they failed to do this.

 

You are foolish and wrong to blame the victims. I'm not going to waste any more time if you can't see that.

[xgrifterx 10]

is that off the scc website wy deano? well mr mothersole might want to eat his words when a legal challenge is called or the loosing party claims some law from 1800 odd to get it all re-run. lewisham kept their polls open for 45mins so why not sheff??!!

 

i said i'd leave the country if the tories ever got in again....if they do, combined with my vote being mucked up by SCC i'll be the one making the legal challenge....on the way to the ferry at Hull!

Edited May 6, 2010 by xgrifterx
my spelling