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?

I would like to formally retract my YANBU and change it to YABU!

I hadn't realised until I got up this morning and watched the coverage of polling stations, how bad it was!

Yeah, I should learn! Rather than keep upping my blood pressure. I left it with "I'm right, you're wrong, and I'm bored now." Very mature of me.

See I work in London and commute often am on a train at 7am for a meeting at 8am so before work is not an option! I often pre-children would be at work till 7pm maybe later! Last elections I finished about 7 heading via the pollig station on my way home, however trains completely screwed up so unable to get to pliny station before 10pm closure! Lots of commuters have this trouble! So last election I lost my right to vote! In think extending the votin period to 24hrs is not unreasonable personally. It's a bit like shopping at Christmas I tend to go at 4 or 5am day before Xmas eve as it's the best time for me!

I still think that if you KNOW you are likely to have potential obstacles to getting to your polling station - ie you work long hours, do shift work, work away a lot etc - then you ought to apply for a postal vote.

Better to vote by post than not at all and yes EVERYONE has the option of a postal vote.

Not eveyone feels confident that postal votes are a secure way to vote.

reports of postal vote fraud

this is a big enough issue for me to not take part in postal votes. Especially having witnessed problems in verifying postal votes when I have been an observer.

if I could not be present to vote I would ask a trusted friend to vote by proxy for me.

I take your point badkitten though our voting system is far more secure than in some countries (by which I mean there is no one threatening to kill you if you vote a certain way or at all).
But as you say, there is always the option of a proxy vote.

foureleven I was being sarcastic. And a bit of an arse, sorry. I blame lack of sleep.

OK, what I should have said is that retired people should no more consider what time they vote than women on maternity leave should consider what time they go shopping. Neither should worry about getting in the way of people with less flexibility.

ChippyMinton, now would be a good time to go back and re-read my post, which talked about computerised registration, not computerised voting. I am talking about replacing the pen-and-paper system used by the election officials to check people off the lists, not the ballot process.

It's all well and good to say we should vote by post if we don't think we can get back in time but most days my commute takes an hour it's once in a blue moon that the trains are completely screwed! And infor one don't trust the postal voting system! It's not as clean cut as people like to think some things like the queig for two or three hours are beyond our control!!!

If voting hours are 7a.m. until 10p.m., then anyone turning up in that time span should be able to vote. It was ridiculous - a slightly higher than normal turnout and all hell breaks loose. They ought to be set up to cope with 100% turnout if necessary, and this was nowhere near that level.

It is completely bizarre to say people should have got there earlier

Agree kurriikurri,
Dh tells me they have computerised voting in Brazil and have done for a quite a while.
Seems like well worth the investment for the uk.

Why should turning up during the voting hours entitle you to vote? There has to be a cut-off point.

The problem is that voting has never taken more than a few minutes and queuing has never been significant. It has always been a very relaxed process. If people knew that they might have to queue and could risk losing their chance to vote if they left it too late then they would make sure to turn up earlier. How could they have been expected to know that it would be different this time?

Something went seriously wrong in the administration of this voting, and that needs to be investigated and dealt with. But also our shamefully laid-back attitude to voting needs to be addressed, too.

If people have queued since 8.30pm and have almost reached voting point at 10pm they should certainly have a vote. It is fairly simple to hand them a token if they are in the queue by 10pm and let them vote.
I don't want a postal vote-I like to vote on the day and it should be perfectly possible!

If you're going to compare being allowed to vote if you get there during published voting times to being able to shop if you get there during shop opening times, then you have to look at Sunday, which is the only time that the closing time is a matter of law rather than the shop's convenience.

On Sunday the law allows an extra 20 minutes to get through the tills after the published closing time - any reform of the system probably needs to look at that, plus an acknowledgement that people are more likely to need, or want, to vote in the evenings than they were when the rules were first drawn up.

OP - are you for real?

Just because you presumably have all day to sit around and then pop in and vote when you choose, it doesn't mean everyone else does.

Most people WORK. I leave for work shortly after 7 and I wasn't home until 7.30 pm that night, due to a meeting, so it had to be an evening vote for me. Wasn't a problem where I am, I changed, had a snack and got along to my polling station by 8.30 pm and walked straight in. BUT if I'd lived somewhere with a hour and half queue and then been turned away I'd have been mightily pissed off. And no, I wouldn't assume that I should have to apply for a postal vote just because I go to work. That's normal life.

As far as I am aware, we live in a democracy which means everyone over the age of 18 gets to vote. If you are unable to exercise that right due to huge queues, waiting for hours, or ballot papers running out then there is something very wrong. AFAIK hundreds couldn't vote in some places. In seats with narrow margins that could change the whole outcome, so yes YABVU. TBH if I had turned up with hours to spare, and not been able to voote I would have been bloody fuming.

There is a cut off point PC - it was ten o'clock, any one who turned up before ten, should have been allowed to vote. Queueing is irrelevant because its not a consistent factor. Some people had huge queues some didn't. I could have turned up at 9.55p.m. and had no problem - because I live in a rural area. But voting rights shouldn't depend on where you live.

YABU. My polling station is over the road! DH shift should have finished at 4pm, I thought we could all go when I got in with DS at just after 6pm. As it turned out, got home to empty house, no food, DH stuck at work. Neither of us voted until about 9.45 when he got in and we took it in turns so one of us was at home with DS. Fortunately not only is it so close I went in my slippers, but no queue whatsoever. People have busy lives and they don't always run to schedule. Maybe OP finds this difficult to relate to?

So it would appear that the main problem is too many people per polling station. So either you have more staff per station and split it up into alphabetic street names, A to F, G to L, M to S and T to Z or some other split that suits the catchment area for the polling station - which would mean a little bit of preparation before Voting Day. The other option is more polling stations in each ward.

Either way more staff are needed - which costs money - so that was the problem. Simple.

Postal voting - which I did - is not easy. I struggled to understand which form to put in which envelope and I consider myself fairly intellegent. The instructions were printed very small and there was a form to sign and include, so that option would put some people off. You could get this option 5 days before the election and then hand it in to any polling station upto 10pm.

first time voter, i was up at seven, and at the polling station at half past. i knew i wouldnt be free until 9.30pm and didnt want to risk missing it. 15 hours is plenty of time!