woodmally Posted May 7, 2010 Share Posted May 7, 2010 If you live in Sheffield Central, did you vote?, Were you refused your vote? Were you put off of voting because of the queues? No queues at 8am in the morning for me and the missus. Though it was quite busy for that polling booth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roobarbpie Posted May 7, 2010 Share Posted May 7, 2010 There was a bit of a queue in Walkley but not more than 15 minutes The cynic in me is wondering if Paul Scriven is looking for some ammunition to force another vote.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptigga Posted May 7, 2010 Share Posted May 7, 2010 The cynic in me is wondering if Paul Scriven is looking for some ammunition to force another vote.... I think that he would be entitled to call for a by-election in the Sheffield Central seat if there were problems with people being denied their vote. He only lost by 160 votes and it sounds like there could have easily been more than 160 people turned away. Equally, if Scriven had won and Blomfield has lost by 160 votes then Blomfield would be equally entitled to call for a by-election. Close elections really do expose the massive weaknesses in the system. Paul Blomfield was elected by less than 50% of the people who voted. More than 50% of voters voted against him, yet he becomes their elected representative. It's not a fair system. The sooner we can have PR and Single Transferable Votes the better it will be for everyone. We all benefit from a fairer system. There's nothing to be cynical about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bumpyroads Posted May 7, 2010 Share Posted May 7, 2010 Nothing I've heard anywhere suggests that (a) Paul Scriven believes the result unfair, or (b) anyone was unable to vote in Sheffield Central. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJK3 Posted May 7, 2010 Share Posted May 7, 2010 (edited) People who blame the voters for this are plain ignorant. Personally I couldn't wait around when I first went to Ranmoor polling station as my wife was ill and I didn't want to leave her. The queue was all the way down the street, with hundreds ahead of me - and the line barely moved in the time I was there. Students ahead of me were saying how their friends in the middle of the queue had already been there more than an hour, so god knows how long I would have been there. I couldn't afford to leave my wife by herself, so I returned home. I came back at 9pm, and this time was directed to a 'residents' queue, but still was unable to vote. I eventually left at 10:20pm. Realistically, you shouldn't have to wait much longer than 15-20 minutes to vote. Also, I've never had to walk more than 5 minutes to get to a polling station (in a city), but that is a minor point. I've worked at polling stations in Australia, and never seen a busy area staffed by just 4 people! This failure was seeded long ago when they registered too many people to one small polling station. It could have been fixed long before the election, and even on the day by properly mobilising staff from less busy polling stations. You just can't run a busy polling station with less than ten staff effectively! Lastly, there should be flexibility in voting at other polling stations if another polling station is unreasonably busy. People tried to go to other polling stations due to the extraordinary queues at Ranmoor, but were turned away. They check the electoral rolls afterwards for people voting twice, and so it would be no different and shouldn't be a problem. Edited May 7, 2010 by RJK3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shelleyis Posted May 15, 2010 Share Posted May 15, 2010 Nothing I've heard anywhere suggests that (a) Paul Scriven believes the result unfair, or (b) anyone was unable to vote in Sheffield Central. I realise this is some time on from the election now but I'm trying to find out if there are any grounds to re do the Sheffield Central vote esp as there were only 165 votes in it. In response to the above I've found this and think that it would be really good if we couldl find 'Mike' or even his daughter or others who may have been denied their vote and at what polling station... • 81. At 10:38pm on 06 May 2010, Mike wrote: My daughter tried to vote in Sheffield Central, but the turnout was so great, that after standing for hours in the rain until 10pm a large number of voters were turned away. This is outrageous and is hardly likely to encourage anyone to vote in the future! The resources were swamped by the number who wanted to vote, but surely someone could have predicted this? Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/haveyoursay/2010/05/have_the_parties_done_enough.html So, I'm still interested in those that couldn't vote (in Sheffield Central), not in long queue stories at this stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Longcol Posted May 15, 2010 Share Posted May 15, 2010 I realise this is some time on from the election now but I'm trying to find out if there are any grounds to re do the Sheffield Central vote esp as there were only 165 votes in it. In response to the above I've found this and think that it would be really good if we couldl find 'Mike' or even his daughter or others who may have been denied their vote and at what polling station... • 81. At 10:38pm on 06 May 2010, Mike wrote: My daughter tried to vote in Sheffield Central, but the turnout was so great, that after standing for hours in the rain until 10pm a large number of voters were turned away. This is outrageous and is hardly likely to encourage anyone to vote in the future! The resources were swamped by the number who wanted to vote, but surely someone could have predicted this? Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/haveyoursay/2010/05/have_the_parties_done_enough.html So, I'm still interested in those that couldn't vote (in Sheffield Central), not in long queue stories at this stage. Don't think anyone in Sheffield Central has claimed they were unable to vote. "Mike" may simply have got his facts wrong and his daughter was in fact in Hallam? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthernStar Posted May 15, 2010 Share Posted May 15, 2010 I walked into my polling station at about 2.30pm and was the only person there, as the lady looked through her lists for my name I was actually feeling a little disappointed and just how few peoples names had been checked off and thought it was due to voter apathy. How wrong I was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Longcol Posted May 15, 2010 Share Posted May 15, 2010 I walked into my polling station at about 2.30pm and was the only person there, as the lady looked through her lists for my name I was actually feeling a little disappointed and just how few peoples names had been checked off and thought it was due to voter apathy. How wrong I was. To be honest if you voted in Central you'd have found the turnout pretty low in some parts - especially with large swathes of social housing. I voted after 7 and when they looked for my name, I noticed only one other name on the 3 roads adjoining mine (all housing association) had been crossed off. This is pretty much situation normal at elections. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheffix Posted May 15, 2010 Share Posted May 15, 2010 Even if a re-run was held and the result changed would it affect anything to have another condem mp? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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