To vote, so stop bloody moaning that they closed th epolling stations at 10.00 pm.Christ they were open from 7.oo in the fucking morning.Proper dicks the lot of them
Think it was a case of finishing work at five.Que was round the block.I'll come back in an hour or so when the end of work rush has died down.2 hours later que even further round the block.
This was a f*** up by the local councils and electoral depts.
turned the radio on yesterday and they were half way through an interview about the 'not being ableto vote' fiasco.
the bloke they were interviewing was giving advice on how to avoid such things happening.
turns out he is one of the people that co-ordinates voting in his own country's elections.
his country.
MALAWI
Something odd was going on.
Previously when I've voted I've strolled around at about 7pm and been the only person there, other than the people paid to be there.
This time I had to queue to get in.
Not for long- I was done in about 10 -15 minutes but it was enough for me
to remark on it.
Later we all found out about the chaos elsewhere.
Good job it was only a 65% turnout eh?
got there at 730am out but 735am went passed it on my way home and saw some of the same people who walked past it when i went in queing down the road laughed all the way home
[cite]Posted By: northstandsteve[/cite]To vote, so stop bloody moaning that they closed th epolling stations at 10.00 pm.Christ they were open from 7.oo in the fucking morning.Proper dicks the lot of them
The point is people did get there with enough time to vote, but had to queue for two hours only to be told they couldn't because they were still outside in the queue at 10pm. I know what you are saying but many people work hours that prevent them going till late evening. Imagine you went to vote say 8pm after working all day you would expect to be able to vote.
I think that 'they' have cut down on the number of Polling Stations in some areas as a money saving exercise s and people don't realise their usual station is closed (moved) until they go to vote, even though the change is shown on their card. There is no excuse though for running out of voting papers, Any Presiding Officer worth his salt should realise there could be problems very early on and notify the Town Hall immediately so that fresh supplies can be obtained. As for the voting after 10p.m, well that's the rule and that's when the doors close. If their are people still in the station waiting to vote the P.O has to use his common sense as it is very easy for a 'situation' to develop, especially as many people remember they haven't voted whilst sitting in the pub! People tend to take it out on the station staff rather than admit that either they didn't know the closing time or they simply forgot to go earlier. If a voter feels that he can't make the time frame then there is the alternative of making a postal vote.
[cite]Posted By: March51[/cite]I think that 'they' have cut down on the number of Polling Stations in some areas as a money saving exercise s and people don't realise their usual station is closed (moved) until they go to vote, even though the change is shown on their card. There is no excuse though for running out of voting papers, Any Presiding Officer worth his salt should realise there could be problems very early on and notify the Town Hall immediately so that fresh supplies can be obtained. As for the voting after 10p.m, well that's the rule and that's when the doors close. If their are people still in the station waiting to vote the P.O has to use his common sense as it is very easy for a 'situation' to develop, especially as many people remember they haven't voted whilst sitting in the pub! People tend to take it out on the station staff rather than admit that either they didn't know the closing time or they simply forgot to go earlier.
The law is, if you haven't got your ballot paper at 10pm, then you can't have one. As much as it may be "common sense" to issue papers past that time, it is illegal. The reason being that if presiding officers have the ability to make that decision, they could make it arbitrarily - perhaps allowing their friends leeway to vote, but not others. Also, where does it end? How do you know that the people on the end of the queue were really there at 10pm or joined a little later? It all gets a bit messy. I think if that had been in my polling station I would have ushered everyone inside and taken a list of all names and addresses, so that they would have been in a stronger position should they wish to take matters further but no-ne would have got a ballot paper out of me. Those officers who refused to issue papers were absolutely correct.
As someone who's been involved in elections for many years, I'm always amazed at the amount of work involved in getting the job done. I do think that the way to go is to have a system largely based on intranet voting.
[cite]Posted By: March51[/cite]I think that 'they' have cut down on the number of Polling Stations in some areas as a money saving exercise s and people don't realise their usual station is closed (moved) until they go to vote, even though the change is shown on their card. There is no excuse though for running out of voting papers, Any Presiding Officer worth his salt should realise there could be problems very early on and notify the Town Hall immediately so that fresh supplies can be obtained. As for the voting after 10p.m, well that's the rule and that's when the doors close. If their are people still in the station waiting to vote the P.O has to use his common sense as it is very easy for a 'situation' to develop, especially as many people remember they haven't voted whilst sitting in the pub! People tend to take it out on the station staff rather than admit that either they didn't know the closing time or they simply forgot to go earlier.
The law is, if you haven't got your ballot paper at 10pm, then you can't have one. As much as it may be "common sense" to issue papers past that time, it is illegal. The reason being that if presiding officers have the ability to make that decision, they could make it arbitrarily - perhaps allowing their friends leeway to vote, but not others. Also, where does it end? How do you know that the people on the end of the queue were really there at 10pm or joined a little later? It all gets a bit messy. I think if that had been in my polling station I would have ushered everyone inside and taken a list of all names and addresses, so that they would have been in a stronger position should they wish to take matters further but no-ne would have got a ballot paper out of me. Those officers who refused to issue papers were absolutely correct.
As someone who's been involved in elections for many years, I'm always amazed at the amount of work involved in getting the job done. I do think that the way to go is to have a system largely based on intranet voting.
Stig - you got it in one - it is a simple matter to issue postcards with a code which can then be typed in and verified then lead to the page with the click on-line your vote and for those IT illiterates they can do the trek down to the polling stations...
Full of compassion and understanding as always steve!
To be fair, if you went down there at around 9-ish you'd be pretty narked if you still hadn't been able to vote by 10. However, if you left the pub at 9.59 then you've got no complaints.
[cite]Posted By: Henry Irving[/cite]one place ran out of ballot papers, hardly the voters fault there.
Sure some people left it late but that cant be the only reason for the mess up in every case.
I cannot understand how it was possible to run out of ballot papers, each presiding officer has an electoral roll list with names of all people entitled to vote at that station. The total amount of voters is shown on the front page and we had at least 150 extra voting sheets at our station even if you had a 100% turnout. Even allowing for spoilt papers there should have been plenty to go round.
Everyone can register to Postal Vote. People should be more organised. No offence, I crawled in from celebrating at WHL gone 4am yet I was up at 7am and had voted by 7.30am. If I can vote in the state I was in, noone has an excuse.
In parliamentary elections it will have made probably no difference to the outcome but local elections were also being held and many of those are lost by a handful of votes so there could be a challenge or two at that level. As I understand it, in some areas the local authorities who organise elections had cut back on training and presiding officers and were caught out, but I think that we have to remember that 10pm means 10pm and anyone arriving at 9.55 and expecting to definately vote is asking for trouble. You wouldn't realistically turn up at Kings Cross for a 10pm train at 9.55 and expect time to queue and buy a ticket before getting on. You might be lucky but equally you might not.
[quote][cite]Posted By: Essex_Al[/cite][quote][cite]Posted By: Henry Irving[/cite]one place ran out of ballot papers, hardly the voters fault there.
Sure some people left it late but that cant be the only reason for the mess up in every case.[/quote]
I cannot understand how it was possible to run out of ballot papers, each presiding officer has an electoral roll list with names of all people entitled to vote at that station. The total amount of voters is shown on the front page and we had at least 150 extra voting sheets at our station even if you had a 100% turnout. Even allowing for spoilt papers there should have been plenty to go round.[/quote]
I have been a PO for 5-6 years now and have never been issued with anything near 100% of required ballot papers. My station had 1300 registered voters and I had 1000 ballot papers. In Greenwich it was a double header parliamentary and local so it was a busy day.
I got a little jumpy when we still had a big queue around 9ish, thankfully it tailed off.
We are categorically told in training that the law states that no-one gets a ballot paper after 10pm. No one would have got one in my station. Not risking a 5k fine.
I would have been explaing the situation to people in the queue rather than just shutting down the station at 10pm.
Simple fact is people had 15 hours to vote. That is plenty of time.
Pissed me off when the electorial commission started finger pointing at polling staff, they shouldvtry reading the rule book that they issue. Even more annoying is the fact that those moaning were opennly admitting that they visited stations 2-3 times and went away because the queue was too big.
[cite]Posted By: Henry Irving[/cite]one place ran out of ballot papers, hardly the voters fault there.
Sure some people left it late but that cant be the only reason for the mess up in every case.
I cannot understand how it was possible to run out of ballot papers, each presiding officer has an electoral roll list with names of all people entitled to vote at that station. The total amount of voters is shown on the front page and we had at least 150 extra voting sheets at our station even if you had a 100% turnout. Even allowing for spoilt papers there should have been plenty to go round.
I have been a PO for 5-6 years now and have never been issued with anything near 100% of required ballot papers. My station had 1300 registered voters and I had 1000 ballot papers. In Greenwich it was a double header parliamentary and local so it was a busy day.
I got a little jumpy when we still had a big queue around 9ish, thankfully it tailed off.
We are categorically told in training that the law states that no-one gets a ballot paper after 10pm. No one would have got one in my station. Not risking a 5k fine.
I would have been explaing the situation to people in the queue rather than just shutting down the station at 10pm.
Simple fact is people had 15 hours to vote. That is plenty of time.
Pissed me off when the electorial commission started finger pointing at polling staff, they shouldvtry reading the rule book that they issue. Even more annoying is the fact that those moaning were opennly admitting that they visited stations 2-3 times and went away because the queue was too big.
Maybe it's down to different councils then Clem. We had 2,300 people registered to vote and 2,500 ballot papers.
nearly as many people vote in Australia and they open for less hours but seem to manage ok.
And before you pick me up on it around 44m are eligible to vote in the UK but less then 60% did whereas in Australia although the population is lower it is compulsory to vote.
[cite]Posted By: LargeAddick[/cite]nearly as many people vote in Australia and they open for less hours but seem to manage ok.
And before you pick me up on it around 44m are eligible to vote in the UK but less then 60% did whereas in Australia although the population is lower it is compulsory to vote.
The numbers in Oz are not that big, only 12.4 million voted in 2007 and the population is spread over a much wider area so you get much less congestion at polling stations.
15 hours to vote - more than enough time. All these people moaning about being disenfranchised gets right up my nose. If it means that much to you get there early and queue - hardly going to take hours out of your life.
Each polling staion will have less than 1,500 voters and with a 100% turnout that means and average of 100 voters an hour. I've worked on all kinds of elections for nearly 30 years. I've never had an hourly count as high as 100.
If you have any problems then arrange a postal vote. It's not difficult.
Every year,or couple of years we vote, we turn up at the polling station and we place our ballot papers in the box, this year people did nothing different, except the organisation meant that there was queueing which had not been experienced before. It was wholly reasonable for people to follow their normal habits for an election and expect to register their vote. if this had happened every election then it would be reasonable to slag people off, but not when they have followed what is a normal routine.
Put it in the context of 100 years not of one night.
I think that the comms should have been a lot better where arrangements had been changed, but ultimately it's a logical extension of spending cuts. I suspect that many councils don't have the money to provide the same level of service they previously did.
Comments
I presume the people who voted late have a reason like doing more than your average 9-5
Dicks no
Think it was a case of finishing work at five.Que was round the block.I'll come back in an hour or so when the end of work rush has died down.2 hours later que even further round the block.
This was a f*** up by the local councils and electoral depts.
the bloke they were interviewing was giving advice on how to avoid such things happening.
turns out he is one of the people that co-ordinates voting in his own country's elections.
his country.
MALAWI
Sure some people left it late but that cant be the only reason for the mess up in every case.
Previously when I've voted I've strolled around at about 7pm and been the only person there, other than the people paid to be there.
This time I had to queue to get in.
Not for long- I was done in about 10 -15 minutes but it was enough for me
to remark on it.
Later we all found out about the chaos elsewhere.
Good job it was only a 65% turnout eh?
The point is people did get there with enough time to vote, but had to queue for two hours only to be told they couldn't because they were still outside in the queue at 10pm. I know what you are saying but many people work hours that prevent them going till late evening. Imagine you went to vote say 8pm after working all day you would expect to be able to vote.
The law is, if you haven't got your ballot paper at 10pm, then you can't have one. As much as it may be "common sense" to issue papers past that time, it is illegal. The reason being that if presiding officers have the ability to make that decision, they could make it arbitrarily - perhaps allowing their friends leeway to vote, but not others. Also, where does it end? How do you know that the people on the end of the queue were really there at 10pm or joined a little later? It all gets a bit messy. I think if that had been in my polling station I would have ushered everyone inside and taken a list of all names and addresses, so that they would have been in a stronger position should they wish to take matters further but no-ne would have got a ballot paper out of me. Those officers who refused to issue papers were absolutely correct.
As someone who's been involved in elections for many years, I'm always amazed at the amount of work involved in getting the job done. I do think that the way to go is to have a system largely based on intranet voting.
Stig - you got it in one - it is a simple matter to issue postcards with a code which can then be typed in and verified then lead to the page with the click on-line your vote and for those IT illiterates they can do the trek down to the polling stations...
To be fair, if you went down there at around 9-ish you'd be pretty narked if you still hadn't been able to vote by 10. However, if you left the pub at 9.59 then you've got no complaints.
I cannot understand how it was possible to run out of ballot papers, each presiding officer has an electoral roll list with names of all people entitled to vote at that station. The total amount of voters is shown on the front page and we had at least 150 extra voting sheets at our station even if you had a 100% turnout. Even allowing for spoilt papers there should have been plenty to go round.
Polling stations opened from 7 am until 10 pm.
No offence, I crawled in from celebrating at WHL gone 4am yet I was up at 7am and had voted by 7.30am. If I can vote in the state I was in, noone has an excuse.
congrats on your result i have to listen to how big your club is for another 10 yrs but lots of pals are well happy so i guess i am too
for them not your 2 bob tight fisted child football ground stealing mokey club
Maybe that was a contributary reason?
Fewer booths in my polling station also.
No sizeable queues, just a 5 or 10 mins in the foyer.
But if I'd turned up at 8pm after a long day working and travelling, queued for 2 hours - and then was turned away at 10pm, I'd be pretty narked too.
Sure some people left it late but that cant be the only reason for the mess up in every case.[/quote]
I cannot understand how it was possible to run out of ballot papers, each presiding officer has an electoral roll list with names of all people entitled to vote at that station. The total amount of voters is shown on the front page and we had at least 150 extra voting sheets at our station even if you had a 100% turnout. Even allowing for spoilt papers there should have been plenty to go round.[/quote]
I have been a PO for 5-6 years now and have never been issued with anything near 100% of required ballot papers. My station had 1300 registered voters and I had 1000 ballot papers. In Greenwich it was a double header parliamentary and local so it was a busy day.
I got a little jumpy when we still had a big queue around 9ish, thankfully it tailed off.
We are categorically told in training that the law states that no-one gets a ballot paper after 10pm. No one would have got one in my station. Not risking a 5k fine.
I would have been explaing the situation to people in the queue rather than just shutting down the station at 10pm.
Simple fact is people had 15 hours to vote. That is plenty of time.
Pissed me off when the electorial commission started finger pointing at polling staff, they shouldvtry reading the rule book that they issue. Even more annoying is the fact that those moaning were opennly admitting that they visited stations 2-3 times and went away because the queue was too big.
Maybe it's down to different councils then Clem. We had 2,300 people registered to vote and 2,500 ballot papers.
And before you pick me up on it around 44m are eligible to vote in the UK but less then 60% did whereas in Australia although the population is lower it is compulsory to vote.
The numbers in Oz are not that big, only 12.4 million voted in 2007 and the population is spread over a much wider area so you get much less congestion at polling stations.
Each polling staion will have less than 1,500 voters and with a 100% turnout that means and average of 100 voters an hour. I've worked on all kinds of elections for nearly 30 years. I've never had an hourly count as high as 100.
If you have any problems then arrange a postal vote. It's not difficult.
Put it in the context of 100 years not of one night.