As critics turned up the heat on the Electoral Commission in the wake of the problems at polling stations on May 6, Jenny Watson, chair of the election watchdog, appealed to voters who suffered to contact the commission as part of its urgent investigation into exactly what went wrong.
Ms Watson said: “Casting a vote on election day is one of the most important things we do in a democracy and people will rightly be upset and angry if they were unable to do this. We want to hear from voters who experienced problems on polling day, whether they were unable to cast their votes or encountered any other difficulties.”
Hundreds of voters in Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and parts of London were turned away from polling stations at 10pm, there were “unacceptable” queues in some constituencies and some polling stations ran out of ballot papers.
Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, described what happened as a “scandal”. She said: “Shameful scenes of hundreds of voters turned away from polling stations are unworthy of a mature democracy like ours.”
Bridget Prentice, the former justice minister who stood down as MP for Lewisham East at the general election, described the scenes at some polling stations as “unacceptable”. She said: “If people have turned up on time it cannot be right that they have not been able to exercise their right to vote.”
John Mothersole, chief executive of Sheffield City Council, said he would not claim his £20,000 fee as acting returning officer after long queues prevented people voting. He said: “The council is responding to the commission’s request for information as to what happened.”
