Electoral MESS

[a_silver_story]

I dunno if anyone outside of the UK really heard what an absolute shambles this election was.

Thousands of people - myself included - didn't get to vote because the registers weren't updated, the queues were too long and the stations understaffed or the stations ran out of ballot papers. To be turned away and told you cannot vote because of the professional unpreparedness of the event is shocking.

How can this be a democracy if you can be told you're not allowed to cast your vote? So your station has run out of ballot papers? Well, it's not like you can go to another polling station! You're registered at one, and can only vote there. If the queue takes you out past 10pm, your polling station's register isn't updated or the ballot papers run out you can't go somewhere else and do it.

And I'm not talking about this happening at just one polling station. It was up and down the nation.

Thousands of votes weren't cast, so thousands of votes have not been counted.

Hopefully, with the result of a hung parliament, we will get electoral reform (the party with the most votes actually winning the election? OUTRAGEOUS!) in time for when they dissolve and call another election - because if this is a democracy, that is what has to be done in the interest of fairness and democracy itself.

In other news, the BNP and UKIP still hold zero seats and are 100% powerless, if not obnoxiously loud and rather annoying. Jimmy Carr's assessment of Nick Griffin and the BNP on last night's Alternative Election couldn't have been funnier or more accurate. <3 Jimmy Carr.

Other than that, I can almost say I'm ashamed to live in a country where 45% of eligible voters don't bother, and a 65% turn out means too many have come and you must be prepared to be turned away.


At least we've got John Barrowman, though.

Comments

[green-lemon-pie.livejournal.com]

Ohhh the election. *facepalm*

I think Mr Barrowman would make an amazing party leader. Or Priminister for that matter!

[draconia-99.livejournal.com]

I read it on BBC, it's quite incredible. Definitely should not have happened, and the authorities better work on reforms and organisation *now*.

[rednwhiterose.livejournal.com]

Dude..this is like 2000 here in the States. I feel for you and I hope it turns out better for you then it did us.

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

Ditto the previous comment. Were the voting problems concentrated in any party's strongholds or was it just random fuckups?

[a-silver-story.livejournal.com]

I think it was just a random fuck up that happened in far too many places for it to pass as democratically fair. I'm sure if any patterns emerge, The Sun will be on it.

[hydrojen90.livejournal.com]

I agree with what you have to say. I too had problems. I'm registered to where my parents live and thought I would nip down and vote, but the queue was so long I didn't have the time and had to go to work. It was a bloody outrage! On another note, I think I want Nick Clegg's babies...

[magicmalcolm.livejournal.com]

Luckily I had no problems voting up here, but good gravy what a colossal fook-up the whole thing was in general. I will admit to being utterly dismayed at the Conservative upswing (because they will royally screw us Scots over yet again), but eh...not much I can do about that.

However, when I heard that the BNP failed to get any seats despite having so many candidates? Yeah, that cheered me up no end. Oh, and the Green Party got a seat! Good for them.

[a-silver-story.livejournal.com]

Yes the Green Party finally got a seat!

I've been considering going over to Nick Griffin's facebook and trolling a bit (again). Maybe something along the lines of:

Nazis: 0
Normal People: 2


And yes, Scotland would be completely fucked over by the Tories, as will Wales, Northern Ireland and the north of England. The Tories are primarily an ENGLISH ENGLISH ENGLISH party, with very backward views. They have their own interests at heart, not that of the nations they're in charge of.

Tax cuts for the rich and increased taxation of the poor? I'm sorry ... WHAT?

I'm telling you now - no one can trust Cameron. He cannot frown. Never trust who cannot frown: he's wearing a mask to hide his LIES LIES LIES.

[electrictoes.livejournal.com]

That massively sucks. I went really early on in the day, so I was okay, but I think it's ridiculous that so many people got turned away, especially as some seats swung with less than 200 votes between the parties.

[alchemistpotion.livejournal.com]

Wow. This bloody fiasco makes me almost reconsider my decision to try eventually and become a British citizen. That is sickening people being turned away from voting! Though, America had the infamous 2000 presidential election. Not sure how much you would know about that, but suffice it to say there was a huge fuck up with vote counting, and absentee ballets.