Town Hall apologises for election day glitch that left residents unable to vote

A sign outside Hackney polling station. Photograph: Hackney Citizen

The Town Hall has apologised for the system error that denied up to 100 residents their vote in last week’s General Election.

Acting Returning Officer and Chief Executive of Hackney Council Tim Shields has promised to get to the bottom of the issue.

Mr Shields said: “I’d like to apologise to those who were affected by issues relating to the new national online voter registration system, which meant that some people were left off the printed register.

“This affected voters across the country, but we were able to resolve issues for eligible voters by liaising with poll station staff when residents attended to vote.

“We will be investigating and working with the Cabinet Office to understand exactly what happened and to ensure that this does not happen again.”

Many residents were left furious that they were unable to vote on May 7 despite having registered before the deadline.

It is thought that the council’s IT system buckled under the pressure of thousands of people registering to vote just before the April 20 deadline.

The Council blamed the failure on the new Individual Registration System, saying that details had to be “cross-checked” by the government.

There was also a delay in the distribution of ballot cards, many of which the council had to hand-deliver right up to the day of the election.