Electoral Commission to probe voting chaos
Updated on 07 May 2010
After many polling stations proved unable to cope with yesterday's turnout, Darshna Soni reports that an investigation has been launched into what went wrong.
Hundreds of people were denied their right to vote in yesterday's general election after many polling stations proved unable to cope with the turnout.
The Electoral Commission has promised a "thorough review" to find out what went wrong.
A group of election observers from Commonwealth countries has said that more flexible opening hours and more staff at polling stations could have helped.
According to some human rights lawyers, voters who were unable to vote last night may be able to claim for compensation.
Geoffrey Robertson QC said people denied the right to vote would be able to take legal action.
He said: "These people have a right to sue.
"They will get at least £750 in my view. Under the European Convention you have a right to vote.
"They were terribly disappointed, they should all sue and get money from the Electoral Commission, which seems to have incompetently overseen it."
Richard Clayton QC agrees with this saying: "Those prevented from voting might also make a claim for damages under the Human Rights Act for breach of their right to vote guaranteed by the European Convention of Human Rights.
"The English courts have been cautious about awarding damages under the Human Rights Act but may be persuaded to give damages of say, £750 because inadequate arrangements were put in place by returning officers."
Petition a poll
The Electoral Commission says if any voters have been "directly" affected by the polling disruption, they can send an email of complaint to: info@electoralcommission.org.uk
In a statement the Electoral Commission said: "It is a cause for serious concern that many people who wanted to vote today were unable to do so by 10pm when polls closed.
"Each Returning Officer is responsible for deciding numbers of polling stations in their constituency and the numbers of electors allocated to each polling station.
"By law, polls must close at 10pm and any voter issued with a ballot paper by 10pm should be allowed time to cast it, but no ballot paper should be issued after 10pm.
"There should have been sufficient resources allocated to ensure that everyone who wished to vote was able to do so.
"The Electoral Commission will be undertaking a thorough review of what has happened in those constituencies where people have been unable to vote."
The Commission also gives advice on how to petition a poll:
How to petition a poll - challenging an election result
An election petition can be presented by:
• someone who voted or had the right to vote at the election
• someone alleging themselves to have been a candidate at the election
• someone claiming to have had the right to be elected at the election
Petitioners must present the petition within 21 days of the return of the writ (usually the day after the election). Where the petition relates to election expenses or corrupt or illegal practices involving the payment of money after the election, further time may be allowed.
Petitioners must sign the petition and return it to the Elections Petition Office at the Supreme Court in England and Wales and the Court of Session in Scotland.
Success of a petition?
However, lawyers do not appear to think that petitioning a poll will result in the courts deciding a constituency result, as happened in the US elections.
Richard Clayton QC said: "Those who were prevented from voting yesterday could present an election petition to try and invalidate the election of an MP.
"But a petition is unlikely to succeed unless the election result was very close and the inability to vote was likely to have affected that result."
Electoral Commission investigation
Earlier the Electoral Commission confirmed it is to investigate reports of hundreds of voters being turned away from polling stations which were unable to cope with a late surge.
Police were called in a number of places as voters complained they were unable to vote in Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield, Manchester and several parts of London. The polls closed at 10pm, but in many places there were still queues at that time.
Manchester
In Manchester some 200 voters in Ladybarn Withington were shut out of a polling station. There have been reports of hundreds more throughout the city who were unable to vote.
Manchester City Council told Channel 4 News that costs were not an issue. The council said that there were enough ballot papers to go round.
The spokesman said that there were slightly more polling stations than in 2005 due to boundary changes and certainly not a reduction. The council was forced to send some extra staff from the central pool.
The council said that reports of numbers unable to vote at polling stations is a bit of an exaggeration. They claim it does not make numerical sense as roughly 1,000 voters attended each polling station. At most, the council says around 100 voters may have missed out.
However it says that people were able to speak to senior council officers to raise their concerns and due to the increased turnout and late arrivals at 9.45pm at some polling stations, there was nothing more the council could do.
Hackney
In Hackney, East London, there were complaints over queues, with some voters being turned away from a polling station in Triangle Road after some had been forced to queue for more than an hour and a half.
A Hackney Council spokesman told Channel 4 News that some voters were turned away from the Ann Tayler Centre in Triangle Road because of the "unprecedented high turnout of voters".
The spokesman said: "Hackney has experienced an unprecedented high turnout of voters with postal votes on 80 per cent turnout, and some ballot boxes as high as 75 per cent.
"We are running three elections in Hackney and expect to have counted in excess of 275,000 ballot papers by the end of the day.
"In the past elections in Hackney have always run smoothly and we apologise unreservedly to the very few voters who found themselves unable to vote yesterday evening. We had three staff at the Ann Tayler Centre – the normal number for elections."
The spokesman confirmed that there were a total of 78 polling stations under the council's authority and this is unchanged from the 2005 election.
Lewisham
Police were called to a polling station in Manwood Road, Lewisham, south London, where around 300 people had yet to vote by 10pm, Scotland Yard said.
A Lewisham Council spokesperson told Channel 4 News: "In our preparations, we had anticipated that a large number of people might arrive late in the evening to vote.
"Presiding officers had been advised to make sure that all people queuing were brought into the polling station and issued with ballot papers prior to 10pm.
"This meant we were able to comply with legal provisions and make sure people were not disenfranchised.
"Two of our polling stations experienced late queues but we were able to find a pragmatic solution to allow people to vote while remaining within the law."
Lewisham Council said there were no cost issues or lack of resources, and confirmed that there was only one extra polling station under its authority compared with the 108 of 2005.
Liverpool
In Liverpool, at the Wavertree polling station in Dunbabin Road, they ran out of ballot papers. A statement from the Acting Returning Officer Colin Hilton said: "Due to an unprecedented and unexpected high turnout in the Wavertree Constituency, a small number of polling stations ran out of ballot papers in the early evening on polling day.
"As is normal procedure in these circumstances, additional ballot papers were delivered very swiftly to these stations.
"I would like to apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused to some electors and I would like thank them for their patience in waiting until the new ballot papers arrived. Every elector in the Wavertree Constituency who wanted to vote had the opportunity to do so before polls closed at 10pm.
"The very high turnout has caused similar problems in many other parts of the country."
Channel 4 News Reporter Andrew Thomas says: "Although the rules on the Electoral Commission website are clear, what was also clear last night was that not enough people knew those rules. Poll officials interpreted them in different ways in different places."
Newcastle
In Newcastle long queues were reported at two polling stations in East Gosforth and Jesmond and Heaton around 10pm.
A Newcastle Council spokesman told Channel 4 News: "In line with our understanding of election guidance, presiding officers took a pragmatic and common sense approach and allowed voters into the polling stations before locking the doors as required by law at 10pm.
"Voters inside the buildings at this point were allowed to vote. We consider that this decision was taken in the best interests of democracy.
"People arriving at polling stations after 10pm were turned away as it would have been illegal to admit them.
"Turn out across Newcastle was high in line with the rest of the country. Polling stations did experience peaks and troughs of demand through the day but presiding officers were able to cope with the challenges.
"The late surge of voters towards the closure of the polls appears to have been a national phenomenon which could not have been predicted.
"There is no evidence to suggest that the way the late night surge of voters was handled at the close of polls made any material difference to the outcome of elections in Newcastle.
"As with any election Newcastle City Council will review the operation of polling stations to see if any lessons can be learned for the future."
Leeds
Problem were also reported in Leeds.
Paul Rogerson from Leeds Council said: "I've been made aware of a problem at one of our polling stations. At that particular polling station we've been checking the figures. For the last three elections the number of electors voting there has been under 200. Today it was 1,400."
Sheffield Hallam
Voters were turned away from polling stations in Sheffield Hallam, where Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg was standing. Returning officers said many were students who did not have polling cards - which are not necessary, but speed the process up.
But two Sheffield University Students we spoke to accused the returning officers of discriminating against students. They said that because of the crowds, the the presiding officer started discriminating between students and "residents"; the residents having access to a fast track queue to vote whilst students were held back.
Channel 4 News Correspondent Nick Martin writes from Sheffield:
When a student, Ben Pearce, challenged Mr Globe, he at first said that he was prioritising adults with small children, and disabled or the elderly.
However, the students said there was no evidence of such discrimination, of which would have been accepted and supported by many students.
Later he appeared to change his argument claiming that "students don’t bring their polling cards" - although the students told Channel 4 News that a vast majority did have their documents. It was also discriminative, the student said, since there is no legal requirement to bring the polling card in order to vote. The discrimination was unjust the students added.
As both students, and also residents who had refused to separate into a different queue on principle in support of students, continued to question Mr Globe he made statements to the nature of "students only vote because their union registered them" and claimed that "students haven’t turned up in the past" which they said they fond offensive and irrelevant to the right and equal opportunity to vote.
Some students were waiting outside in the rain for over two hours, watching whilst older local residents were ushered in and out within 20 minutes. Some attempted a sit-in after being turned away, they said, but left after a police riot van arrived.
