Shambles at (Dulwich Village) Polling station

[eater81]

Went to vote earlier at the polling station in Dulwich Village, never seen such a shambles in my life!

Queues out of the door, some ludicrous system to divide people up based on which road you lived on, a bunch of gormless muppets ticking people off from a list by hand, taking about 5 mins to find each voter on the list, inefficiency at its very worst. I almost didn't bother.

And now, votes being counted by hand, by pottentially corrupt counters.

To think that in this day and age, the most important event in the country is being run in such an antiquated manner. Surely a computerised voting system is the way forward? I wouldn't have had to queue up for half an hour and we would know the resuts already.

[silverfox]

I seem to remember California had a computerised shambles some years ago and the suspicion was George Dubba shouldn't have become President

[c_m_h]

I voted in DV at 6.30pm and it was fine, straight in, no queue. Such is life.

[????]

er...Florida

[silverfox]

Thanks ????, of course it was Florida. Must be suffering from Exit Poll-itis.

[silverfox]

Eater81, it seems you have a point as there are reports of people being turned away across the country and talk of Lewisham staying open an extra half-hour.

Problem appears to be people leaving it late to vote, and I'm not sure a computerised system would solve this, unless it was done over the web with appropriate safeguards.

[Applespider]

It is an odd situation. Part of me has sympathy for the returning officers. They are under pressure to get votes counted quickly - and voters do have 15 hours to vote in.

But I do think that the Lewisham returning officer took the sensible approach. If people were in the queue or in the polling station at 10, they should have been allowed to vote. I think there were issues over this in the last US elections but the majority stayed open.

How terribly British for queues to potentially be the hanging chad of democracy.

[buggie]

Apparently Harriet Harman has said that there could be a legal basis for the election result to be challenged due to the amount of people across the country being turned away from polling stations/the inconsistency of returning officers response to late queues.... so we might have to do it all again!

[Bluerevolution]

voted at Parkham Rye Tennants association and queued for an hour and a quarter-this election is going to be contested

[Ladygooner]

Why don't the elections take place on a Sunday as they do in Europe? That way people who work are not restricted to early mornings or late nights leading to these sorts of queues?

[Keef]

To be fair, there was a woman (I think from Sheffield) on telly last night saying it was a disgrace her democratic right had been taken away. She went on to say she'd been there at 6, 7, 8, and then finally decided to join the queue at 9:30. Well you should have just queued at 6 you silly cow!

Think to many people had the same idea that it would be dead by 9, so they'd nip down in the last hour.

[Loz]

A colleague of my missus turned up early at his station on the way to work. The ballots there had not been delivered and were not expected until 10am!

Shambles.

[benjaminty]

Turned up at 9.30pm and voted at Darrell Road with no queue whatsoever. Without a polling card I wasn't sure how many difference stations I had the option of but plummed for my nearest and hey presto.

Could those in Dulwich Village have voted on Darrell? 5 minute drive... if that is the case then perhaps better knowledge of all polling stations by voters would heve been the key

[Carrie]

You don't have a choice of polling stations benjaminty - you have to vote on the one shown on your polling card - you obviously made a lucky guess.

[Keef]

You have to vote at your local polling station, others would turn you away. It's all done by address.

[Cassius]

Also voted at Darrell road with no queues at all.

[Ladygooner]

Postal votes are so much easier

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

No they're not. I missed out in the last election because I never received mine in time. I switched back straight away.

Goose Green seemed pretty efficient, but I did go at 7.15 am.

[bil]

i thought the process was quite basic with plenty of room for error. I walked into the polling station, without a polling card, gave my address and name without any ID -which i wasn't expecting (could have easily given my next door neighbours or the details of the 2 people who used to live at my address for whom we also have polling cards). The lady read my number out loud, which another lady wrote down twice, nearly making a mistake each time (bless)-plenty of room for error. one of my voting slips didn't fit completely into the box either (it was probably nearly full). I agree that in the 21st century we should hope to have some form of secure computerised voting option. i usually post my vote but moved here recently and didn't set it up, so this is the first time i have been to a polling station. I went as soon as i returned from work at 8pm but if i had had to queue for 30 mins to 1 hr (after working an 11 hr day) I would have gone mad!

[Keef]

What about the people who don't have computer access or knowhow, how would they vote? Think doing it that way would exclude a lot of voters, and be open to too much abuse.

[SteveT]

The one in Barry rd had no queue when I went, but took several minutes going through the lists to find the house I inhabit.

I immediately thought what a pain in the bum system if there is more than one person at a time.

It took two of the people there to find the house listing.

A rubbish voting system.

Having placed my vote I then dropped it into a box which looked suspiciously like an office shredder..................

[intexasatthe moment]

In Sheffield Ranmoor the returning officer decided that residents shoild vote before students who were told to form a second line .

Students queued for over 2 hours and were still unable to vote .

That's not people being "silly cows"

[woofmarkthedog]

eater81 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Went to vote earlier at the polling station in

> Dulwich Village, never seen such a shambles in my

> life!

-----------------------------------------------------------

I know...

The "curtains" were awful

For that alone I voted LibDem

( you watch, they'll have some Ikea blinds up in no time )

W**F

[Moos]

intexasatthe moment Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> In Sheffield Ranmoor the returning officer decided

> that residents shoild vote before students who

> were told to form a second line .

> Students queued for over 2 hours and were still

> unable to vote .

> That's not people being "silly cows"

Wasn't this because the students didn't have their polling cards?

I agree it's unacceptable that anyone eligible should be unable to vote, but faced with people who do have polling cards and those that don't (slower to process) it seems to make sense that those without should have been processed separately.

[silverfox]

Technology glitch hits Philippine election

Optical scanning machines were being used but humidity affected some... Election commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said about 300 out of 76,000 machines had problems. The elections commission extended voting for another hour to make up for delays...

Perhaps no system is infallible

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23832059-technology-glitch-hits-philippine-election.do