to think that people turned away from voting should have got down there earlier?

[aloevera]

They've had all day. Or could have done a postal vote? Or am I too harsh?

saw some on the news who had queued for hours, so YABU

Well, I thought that, but someone elsewhere on the boards have suggested that these people were there early and had to queue.

Still think there was 15 hours and surely to god they could have managed it.

Mainly students who have just got up to go to the pub? Or only just realised there is an election on?

some of us COULDN'T get there earlier because their children had chicken pox and they had to wait for their dp to get it

thankfully i got to vote. but in some areas people were queuing for THREE hours to vote so it' s unsurprising some weren't allowed

it's shocking though.

How big must their polling station area be though, if they've had to queue for hours though? My area is very small and I live in a London Borough, so hardly rural.

If they showed up before ten, they should all be allowed to vote. It's outrageous if they have been turned away.

YABU. Agree with Lulumaam - in some urban areas the queues seemed huge. I wandered in this morning and voted immediately but I think it's different in high-density areas.

It is an ordinary working day - most people work some distance away from their delegated polling station, so yes, yabu.

Ok, so if someone is queueing for 3 hours I guess that's a different story...

there was an affray in islington at one of the polling stations as people could not get to cast their vote

But surely people working away from their polling station should have sorted a postal vote if they wanted to vote?

Queues to vote are never normally that long though. Having to queue for an hour is unheard of, so if you turned up at 9pm following a day at work I don't think that's unreasonable - and the fact that queues were building up was not well publicised during the day.
If I hadn't been planning to take DD along this time I might well have turned up at 9:15pm once they were both asleep.

I don't understand what had gone so wrong that people were queuing for 3 hrs.

I just strolled in at 9am, the place was practically empty. (Edinburgh)

As an aside the working at the ballot boxes work from about 6am - 11pm. They are not allowed (IIRC) to leave the premises so I agree that the doors did have to be shut at 10pm.

also, voter turn out has increased this year

from BBC site:

Kathy Murray writes: Manchester City council have obviously underestimated its people. 1 person handing out ballot papers for Manchester Withington. I'm disgusted! We live round the corner from the polling station. We went at 1800 - it was too busy we went back an hour later - still big queues. We went back at 2100 but still couldn't vote. I estimate 200 were turned away. In 2005 there were more polling stations open

The first year I voted it was at 9.50pm as I didn't finish work until 9pm. There will be lots of people who don't finish until late. And no-one would be thinking they'd have to queue at that time. When has there ever been queues?!

I got there at 7:40, earliest I could get there when dh got home (at work all day) was in the queue for nearly an hour then dh had to go and vote and again queued for nearly an hour - totally unheard of and nothing we could have done about it and if dh had missed his train from work which often happens neither of us might have voted.

But there were a lot of people in my queue who clearly could have voted earlier and didn't.

I think it is indicative of the fact that there is predicted to be a much higher turn out rate than usual, so some areas have been taken by surprise in terms of staffing and number of cubicles available to get everyone through.

How would you know you needed to go and queue for hours? well done those who DID stick it out and vote - i would have had to go do the school run and come back and start queuing again with the kids!!

those who did not get to vote have every right to be angry.but i dont know what the answer is. perhaps more people will opt for postal vote next time as a result?

You are being very unreasonable (and I know it isn;t AIBU).

They may have been stuck at work unable to get out in time.

Some people had been stood in queues for more than an hour, with reports in Sheffield of 2-3 hours in more than one ward.

Not everyone has the luxory of going during the day.

If they wee int he queue by 10pm, they should beallowed to vote IMO.

Surely organizers would have an idea of how many could turn out from the polling cards they send out?

aloe, of course they know how many CAN vote, just lots of people dont usually bother. they have been taken by surprise by a record turnout

I think YABU, it is all very well and good saying they should have been more prepared and in future I'm sure everyone will be but this is unheard off.

They showed a huge queue down the street on tv, i think in Leeds. IME voting is a stroll in the stroll out affair over in 5/10 min, when there was a teacher complaining the other week that a parents evening might mean she would not have time to vote lots of posters were saying "it only takes 5 mins"

That said i dont think that they should have allowed people to vote in Lewisham after exit polls etc. had been broadcast, or more they shouldnt have allowed them to be broadcast but they prob couldnt have stopped it then.