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?

So don't secure them overnight. Have it open overnight, so shift workers can vote at any time.

7am Thursday until 10pm Friday.

A bit off-topic but an earlier poster suggested that those working in the polling stations have to stay on the premises for the entire duration of its opening. If that's the case, do they cast their vote there at some point during their working day? What if they live in a different constituency?

Just announced that the electoral commission have apologised and with hold a review.

God I hope under a new gov we wont have to have constant reviews. Of everything.

this is the first year I've not been on a polling station for 7 years. At no time has anyone had to queue for more than 10-20 minutes. our system has worked on the basis that people arrive thoughout the day with the majority in the evening.

if everyone had turned up at 7-8am (ie before work) they would all have been late for work - substantially.

your ability to vote should not be based on the numbers who turned up before you. if you turn up to vote before 10pm then you should be able to vote.

oh honestly there are some people on the news now - turned up at 6, there was a queue so went home, turned up at 7, there was a queue so went home, turned up at 8, there was a queue, went home, turned up at unspecified time and decided to stay in the queue for once and it was too late. sorry but duh. I was worried about turning up at 8.45 and it being too late.

running out of voting papers is an absolute disgrace - no need to penny pinch on voting papers - there should be one for every person on the register for that polling station

If the stations close at 10 pm I would expect to walk in with seconds to spare and still be allowed to vote. I would be admitted to a supermarket to purchase a few items, why is voting different? And running out of papers to vote on??? What's that all about? It is only a certain number of people allowed to vote at a particular place, so how can they not know what that number is and cater for them accordingly?

Yes. Silly disorganised idiots.
And if they start bleating about it being 'undemocratic' they need their heads kicked in.
No, you idiots.
Undemocratic is when your home is sprayed with anAK47 or your children are tortured in front of you for how you dare to vote.o

screamin, this is unprecedented, yes in hind sight but it is not usual to have to queue like that here. that means that if you didnt guess wisely you didnt get to vote. not democracy.

you're not allowed into my local supermarket seconds before it closes!

Having things to do, like childcare and work, doennt make you a disorganised idiot.

One of my friends went to vote at 7pm, waited in line for an hour and had to leave as her babysitter could wait no longer. Was meant to be a 'watch DD for 10 minutes whilst I nip out to vote'.

She's not a disorganised idiot. She's a nurse who worked 6-6, came home to let her nurse husband leave for nightshift, went at 7 to vote and couldn't get in.

where do you draw the line.
starting to queue at 9:30pm and cant vote cos of queues?
starting to queue at 8:30pm and cant vote cos of an even larger turn out?
7:30?
6:30?
get there in the morning and can't vote?

Take your kids with you.Like I did.
There was noone at home 'minding' them.
Oh, and I managed to fit in a full day of work.Clever eh?

good job that you didnt have everyone turning up when you did moondog, wouldnt have been on time to work.

There's not a lot of point slating people who didn't get to vote - we might as well start making snide comments about those (like me) who have all the time in the world to vote, since we don't do 'proper' 9-5 jobs.

It is difficult given there's clearly a much higher turnout that anyone's had to deal with in years. But, did anyone else thing their polling station people weren't very on the ball? Mine didn't even know the name of the street the polling station was on! Surely, if you're not very organized or aware, you shouldn't be allowed to run a polling station?

Ah, take your child.. I'll suggest that to nurse friend for next time then, thanks. Gosh what a simple solution.

I still didn't get the chance, still stand by one day simply not being a fair amount of time.

If the polls are open until ten, you should be allowed to vote until ten. There are no signs saying "last vote at 9.30" - it's ten.

Gosh!

Imagine being a trendy Hackney type person, who would arrive late and mention that the name is on the list but not being able to vote!!

Quelle Horreur

Having looked at the pattern at our local station they seem to have had a more or less static queue from 6pm through to 10pm, so mathematically the implication is that the resources just weren't sufficient for everyone who wanted to vote after work to vote in the time available.
If everyone turns up at random intervals then almost all of them will have to wait for 30 minutes, and the last fifty people to turn up won't get a vote. If everyone is very organised as the OP suggests and turns up at 5:30pm straight from work then they'll wait for a time of up to 4 and a half hours and the last fifty people to turn up won't get to vote.
If there isn't any spare capacity outside working hours then the queue won't decrease, and no amount of motivation and punctuality will stop some people being denied their vote.

YABU. Normally 21:30 or so is a great time to vote and normally deserted. Should everyone have been psychic? Or should everyone assume that when voting hours are publicised as 07:00-22:00 it actually means 07:00-21:00 (or 07:00-19:00 in some cases).

Even if people could have voted earlier there's no reason that they should. Each individual person picks a time convenient to him or her, and has no reason (based on previous years) to expect that there will be a problem with that.

I often vote late (within the last hour of voting times) because it's easy and (normally) quiet and a good time to pop in and out quickly, not because I'm disorganised. As it happens, this year I voted early (and we didn't have any significant queues anyway, so far as I could see).

dilysprice - I did wonder if that were the case, or whether there was any slack time.

I don't think there was any slack time after working hours in the problem stations. And there were long queues before work as well.
The only things that would help would be more resources, even more postal votes, a few more people voting at 7am sharp when I assume there was a bit of slack and absolutely everyone who could vote during the working day doing so - but no-one knew that we should be doing that.

at trendy Hsckney type

Surprisingly our council seem to have got it right this time - last general election I had to queue for about 45 minutes to vote, this time I went straight in. I went at 6pm as it's the earliest I can park for free (our polling station is 2 miles away)