Newly registered voters turned away in marginal Newcastle-under-Lyme seat

[muriel_volestrangler]

"There have been reports of students from Keele University being turned away at polling stations despite being eligible to vote. The reported problem is in the constituency of Newcastle-under-Lyme where Labour won by just 650 votes from the Conservatives at the last election in 2015 and where Ukip is not standing this time.

In a post directed towards students, the university’s English department appeared to acknowledge there were problems, suggesting it was because some registrations were not on the lists sent out to polling stations."

Link to tweet

"More on the reports that some voters from Keele University have been turned away.

Ben Anderson, a history lecturer at the university, told the Guardian:

There have been students who haven’t been able to vote because they haven’t appeared on the registers supplied to officers. The polling officers have been doing their best to sort that out but there’s clearly an issue. There were a number there holding their polling cards so I am sure there were genuine because the assumption is that they registered too late (and were not on the list for that reason).

There are suggestions that hundreds could have been turned away."

Link to tweet

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2017/jun/08/general-election-2017-uk-polling-day-live?page=with:block-59398786e4b0bdd87e2f4b4d#block-59398786e4b0bdd87e2f4b4d

I wonder if it's just there, or if it's happening elsewhere, but it's more obvious at a university?

[mhw]

1. Wonder if Cambridge Analyitica is in charge of voter lists in UK too?

Mercers are global afterall

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Newcastle-under-Lyme result: Labour majority of just 30

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/constituencies/E14000834

So it's quite possible more people were turned away than the majority. Now, these late registering voters are more likely to be Labour-voting students than Tories, but still ...

On edit: at the end of the BBC article on the registration shambles, it may be that those who were definitely registered in time, but didn't appear on the old register, were counted in the vote total:

"He added those affected by out-of-date electoral lists had been able to vote after polling staff verified they were on the register."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2017-40210132