Voice of London

Some members of the public have been refused their vote for one of the most important elections to date, despite being registered.

Carmen Lees-Green, 21, tells Voice of London that although she had registered to vote at her family home in Wales via post, by the time her poll card arrived it was too late to send off.

She decided to go to her polling station to vote in person only to be “refused a vote”. They told her that because she applied for a postal vote, she wasn’t allowed to vote in person.

To put right the “fault” they suggested ringing the election office.

After refusing twice to do anything, they eventually told her to fill out a pink slip with her vote on it and to send it to the office.

However, this was not good enough for Carmen who commented “I wasn’t allowed to vote because someone else messed up, and took away my right.”

Student, Emily Yarwood, 21, also tells us that despite registering in November and being told that she would hear back from the borough she was part of within ten days.

“After ten days, I hadn’t heard anything” and upon arriving at her home address in Manchester, she found her poll card had been delivered to her family address as opposed to her student address in London, where she had registered her vote.

Due to deadlines she knew she was unable to make the date, so attempted to get in contact only to be told “we’re not in the office at this time” or passed on from people to people.

Eventually she managed to talk to someone who told her the only place she could vote was in Manchester, by which time it was too late to sign up for postal vote.

“Now looking at the exit poll, it’s made me scared to see how the vote will turn out. To know that this happening to students across the country is demoralising as this is effecting our future.”

People across the country took to Twitter to share similar experiences:

Words By: Eleanor Dalton