There were angry scenes around the country tonight after hundreds of voters were unable to vote when polling stations closed at 10pm despite queueing for hours, casting a shadow over the results of the election. Up to 200 would-be voters in Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg's constituency of Sheffield Hallam were left disenfranchised and a number made their way to Clegg's house to protest. The polling stations affected included parts of the London boroughs of Hackney, Peckham, Lewisham, as well as Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle. Police were reportedly called to deal with disturbances in Islington South after voters began demanding the right to vote, while in Lewisham, police attended a polling station after 300 people were still unable to vote by the deadline of 10pm. Some voters in Hackney – where voters had five votes – said they were turned away after queuing for over an hour-and-a-half. A staged sit-in prompted a visit by the police. One angry would-be voter speaking to Sky News outside Clegg's home said: "It was totally frustrating. It's my right to vote. At 6.45 [the queue] was too long to vote. I made the effort. I came back early. It had been totally inadequately manned." Another said he had left work early to vote and arrived just after 9pm but the long "choc-a-bloc" queues meant the polling station closed before he was able to get a ballot paper. The group said that they estimated as many as 150 to 200 people were queuing and were unable to cast their vote by the deadline at 10pm, but were told it would be illegal if polling station staff took any more votes. They claimed people were returning on a "continual basis" because of long queues but returned to find it was still there. "People were coming along seeing the queue and coming back on a continual basis," said one man. He added: "Why didn't they get more people down?"
David Wheeler, who was turned away at Gleadless Valley polling station in Sheffield, said: "There were hundreds of us queuing up in the rain, but they closed the doors at 10 bang on the dot. We tried to argue with them, told them we had the right to vote, but they said they had been open since seven. About 100 of us were turned away." Emma Dickson, the Green parliamentary candidate for Islington North, said queues at a polling station at a primary school had begun to build at 7.15am. "At 7.15 they were already coming through the playground and into the street. There were queues all day and the council didn't put on any extra staff and polling staff didn't seem to be in any hurry. By 10pm everyone was in the school building and at that point there were 36 to 40 people waiting." Dickson said that 1,500 new voters had come into the area after moving into the newly converted flats at the old Arsenal stadium but that only two or three staff were manning the ballot. She said a request was made to the chief executive of the council to take votes but keep them separate in case of a legal dispute but this was refused. But other polling stations were kept open to deal with the backlog. Lewisham reportedly extended the poll by half an hour, while a polling station in Birmingham reportedly called in people queuing and then locked the doors. Apologies were already being issued tonight for the chaos. Angus Walker, returning officer for Sheffield city council had apologised by 11.30pm. He said: "We anticipated increased demand but not this much. We could not issue ballot papers after 10pm in Ranmore. We were not prepared to compromise the election." He added: "We are deeply sorry that it happened." Deputy Labour leader Harriett Harman admitted legal challenges could follow. It is not clear how many voters were unable to vote but reports from various areas suggest numbers well into the hundreds. Andrew Boff, the Conservative mayoral candidate for Hackney said that although around 150 were unable to vote, the number could be twice that after many had given up waiting and after the situation started "getting ugly."
The Guardian
