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

[Callisto]

I'm not sure if I have much sympathy for them really. It does clearly state that you have to vote at your designated polling station before 10pm.

One of the officers in charge said:

"Many did not have their polling cards, which significantly adds time. Some people went to the wrong polling station.

"And... the absolute laziness from the elector by not joining queues when they arrive, returning at a later time only to find a longer line and re-returning at 2200 BST, which, as it clearly states, is closing time."

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8666338.stm

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

re "the queue should have been closed at 10pm - but everyone in it allowed to vote" that would have been illegal - the law only permits people to vote after 10 if they have their ballot cards - the people in the queue are queueing to get their ballot cards.

the polling stations were clearly massively understaffed and when queues started building up failed to do anything about it. it only takes abt a minute, less even, to get your card once you reach the desk so it's quite incomprehensible that this happened.

TDWP-They knew they were students because of their addresses. The students were registered at the student villages. That is what is being reported.

reported where? I don't believe this for a second

they just had a student on the tv who said that an officer was directing "students" to one queue and "residents" to another.

Most polling stations have separate tables of people to give you your forms for different addresses.

So I walked into my polling station, two tables with 3 clerks each, went to the one without the queue, but because of my address had to go to the other one and wait for the slow-reading clerks to find the various names.

I hope that's all that happened with the students and it was just done on postcodes, but even so it's an appalling cockup and they should have called for backup at 7pm as an emergency.

and if it is "the law" that polling stations HAVE to close at 10pm no matter what, that law needs to be changed.

any constituency where the winner won by less than the number of people turned away, should be forced to a re-vote imo.

there was a comment that a lot of students didn't have their polling cards (they may never have received them). they don't need them to vote, but it slows the process down, so that would explain them going to a different queue, as they would need to be processed differently. sheffield apparently had a prob with students turning up without polling cards. obv. they should have had more staff to deal with it, but it was an unprecedented number who turned up.

hatwoman - am talking about for the future, clearly last night it could not have been done but things need to change.

what should be done about it now with regards to last night - my heart says a revote, my head says that would throw us into a dangerous turmoil.

It sounds like there wouldnt have been any difference to the overall result even if everyone had been able to vote.
I heard reports that in Sheffield Hallum there had been a couple of hundred people unable to vote, but with a 15,000 majority, a couple of hundred votes would have had no impact on the result.

A lady (in Lewisham I think) said that she turned up to vote at 8:30 pm, queued for 1.5 hours, and was three places away from the ballot box at 10 pm when they closed voting.

This is disgusting. Many of these people did not turn up to vote at 9:50 pm. Maybe this did not have an effect on the overall result, but everyone should be entitled to vote. I would be very angry if it was me, as it was I had to queue for 30 minutes at 7pm. The only difficulty for me was that I had a fractious 6 year old with me. I would have been devastated if I could not have voted after queuing.

I think that electoral reform will come from this hung parliament, whoever forms the government. I have a feeling that technology will have a part to play in the new system, whether it is PR or not.

I am very sorry for those people who queued and couldn't get to vote. It is very frustrating .

I am appalled that a polling station ran out of ballot papers. That's just a pure admin cock-up and who-ever was managing that area should be sacked, good and proper, and a new election should be run in that constituency.

I am utterly horrified that registered voters in Chester were unable to vote, because the council was using an old copy of the register. Folk with voting cards were turned away from the polling stn. Again, administrative shambles, and Chester should hold a by-election.

But where folk were turned away from the polling station because it was closing at 10, well that is a different matter. The polling station has to close at some time, if not 10, then when? Midnight? So what would you do if people left it until even later, and were queing at midnight.

Someone on here said she was working until 9:30, couldn't go any earlier, But the polling stations opened at 7 a.m. Were you working all the 14 1/2 hours up to then?

Yes maybe some polling stations were understaffed, but the last few elections have attracted TINY turnouts < 50%.
And OK, those of you who said "they should have got more staff in when queues formed", where from? If you are a council employee, just getting the kids tea ready, are YOU going to turn out because your boss rings and says "There are queues at the polling station. Pls go and help process the voters NOW" ?

We should all regard voting with more priority. If more folk had gone before work, or queued up on the way home, things would have been easier. I suspect a lot of folk went home, had tea, watched telly, ummed and ahhhed, then thought "I'll go and vote"

Clumsy - yes if I was working I would have to leave home before 7am and home at 9.30pm - that's a normal shift! Thankfully I don't have to do it anymore!!

I know someone who couldn't vote. She waited 45 minutes queuing before being turned away.

She had no way of knowing that by arriving at 9:15pm that she would not be able to vote.

It is unfair that polling stations were ill equipped to deal with people arriving to vote.

On the radio they were saying that thousands of voters have been affected by it.........that's significant. If it were 50 people or so, then that's one thing, but if 'thousands' is true (was bbc) then that does change things. It's an embarrassment.