So all of these people who wern't able to vote,

OYBBK - I agree, the exit polls should not be released until all polls have closed - which hasn't been a problem in the past. I think it is great that so many people wanted to vote, but it clearly took the organisers completely by surprise. I would have been livid if I had been turned away. As others have said, the queue should have been closed at 10pm - but everyone in it allowed to vote. I can see this have repercussions for the final result.

the election is not going to be called nul and void.

A few hundred people didn't get to vote - that is disgraceful for those people, and in constituencies where a couple of hundred votes separate a result there may be a challenge.

But lets not get hysterical and start calling for another election.

dh didn't vote, he had to go away for a few days for work, was too late to sort postal and proxy voting, and last night, he just didn't make it home in time, he got back at 10.20pm so just missed it.

That is a load of balls....how would they know they are students?

A student on the radio has just claimed that the Presiding officer in one of the Sheffield constituencies allowed residents to vote before students, even though all were equally registered. Thus a lot of students missed out when the station closed. If that is true, it's awful.

all of the votes are close - Tories are claiming 'victory' but they only have something like 50 more seats.......how can they say 'people in this country voted for change' when they haven't really? And soo many people didn't get to vote at all? The Lib Dems were there only ones wanting reform and people haven't felt brave enough to vote for them.

Let's hope the election is called null and void and we can try and do it right this time with it done properly. It's scary that in countries like Afghanistan and Thailand they take these things so seriously.

I can't imagine so - after all there's no way of knowing who cast their vote after 10 pm as it's obv anonomous, and votes cast before that were obviously perfectly legitimate.

Given there were so many stations that experienced this issue I can't see them being able to prosicute for this - if this was the only station that experienced a queue and kept the station open it might be a different story, but this is controvercial enough as it is without bringing prosicutions into the equasion.

I guess the telling thing will be in whether any of the results were tens or hundreds of votes apart. If results are close in areas where voters were unable to vote, then there may be legal challenges to those results.

www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/whereilive/localheadlines/8152463.VOTE_2010__Lewisham_Council_denies_bre akinglawoverBrockleypolling_rush/

So what happens now....are all votes declared null and void if they indeed did break the law.

but it's illegal.

I absolutely have sympathy with anyone who queued for hours/went to a poling station that ran out of ballot papers. That is totally unacceptable.

But the woman from the electoral commission stated quite clearly last night that when the poling station closes at 10:00, the vote is closed, and allowing people in to vote beyond that time is illegal and can result in prosicution.

They were wrong not to bring more staff in when they noticed the size of the queues - totally wrong. But they weren't wrong to close the poling stations at 10:00 because that is what the law states. The one returning officer that allowed a poling station to remain open may well be prosicuted for doing so.

Most confusing is how some places kept the stations open later.

Exit poll could have been delayed. It's disgusting, esp. when I have seen seats won by tens and hundreds and even possibly 2 in Northern Ireland with over 21,000 to each of the top two!

If people turned up at 10pm, yes fair do's, but most of these people arrived well within the time frame and had their right taken from them.

It's disgusting IMO

If this had happened to me I'd be making the effort to visit Downing Street to make sure my vote counted - can they sue the government? Surely it is a contravention of citizen's rights in a democratic country and definitely makes the results invalid imo.

It seems like the famous US wrong result election cock up to me

why don't we delay release of exit polls until all votes are cast? - much better than the media love of exit polls dictating things!!!

if you are in the queue at 10pm you should get to vote.

its ludicrous that people here are suggesting that your democratic right to vote should be dictated by how many people have turned out to vote before you.

LadyintheRadiator
"You are not a better person for voting at 7.30 am instead of 9.30 pm."

Exactly! What on earth is wrong with turning up at 9.30pm? The hours are 7am to 10pm. Turning up at 9.30pm is fine, it doesn't mean you're stupid and shouldn;t be allowed a vote.

I think the situation with the polling stations turning away voters was simply disgraceful. Third world stuff. Yes, people have got 15 hours to turn up, but if the clerks can see the queue is stretching around the block and people have been waiting ages rather than someone banging on the door at five past ten expecting special treatment... then they should have been advised to process everyone still waiting but turn away newcomers.

Monumental stuff up.

Why don't we delay the count till the next morning - thus anyone who wanted to keep queuing could.

Why don't we have elections at weekends, so that many more people would have the option to vote in the day.

Fundamentally, councils banked on low turnouts and they got caught out when people were, shock horror, interested in this election.

By amidaiwish Fri 07-May-10 12:24:53
if this happened in afghanistan or somewhere we'd be claiming the result is invalid.

it's outrageous

Exactly!" How hypocritical of us.

By ClaireDeLoon Fri 07-May-10 12:29:29
Mumsnet really is as judgey as is portrayed sometimes.

Sadly this seems the case.

I really can't believe that people are blaming the voters for not knowing that the queues were too long to enable them to vote at their chosen time and saying they should have foreseen this and organised a postal vote. Mumsnet really is as judgey as is portrayed sometimes.

admidaiwish - because the people in the queue would have been able to find out about the exit poll data and it could affect the way that they voted.

if this happened in afghanistan or somewhere we'd be claiming the result is invalid.

it's outrageous

if you get to a shop which shuts at 5pm, then the doors close at 5pm. the queue should have been shut at 10pm and everyone in the queue allowed to vote. give me one reason why this couldn't have been allowed?

i find it odd that people are defending the councils here, was obviously a monumental muck up, no excuses really.

But you don't need a polling card to vote and it says that on the card. And my council made it quite clear they wouldn't issue me with a card.