Non-voter compensation: try an email Our borough again late for the count E8’s three councillors returned
All of Labour’s candidates have been returned to the three most powerful political posts in Hackney:
Diane Abbott has won Hackney North and Stoke Newington
Meg Hillier has won Hackney South and Shoreditch
Jules Pipe has been elected Mayor of Hackney
Diane Abbott: she’s a Hackney MP again, although this time for Hackney North
Results of the election for local councillors were not published by the scrutineers until today Friday 7 May 2010. Hackney council is always one of the last to announce results.
Dalston ward re-elected Michelle Gregory, Sophie Linden and Angus Mulready-Jones, all Labour.
This year’s excuse for tardiness is that participation was high. Hackney council’s election website was late in being updated. Hackney is always one of the last to announce election results.
The latest excuse is that there was a high demand. The truth is, however, that appearances are misleading: despite queues so long that several hundred Hackney citizens were unable to vote, participation is lower than it was in the 1990s, and postal voting has also eased the pressure on polling booths. Obviously, Hackney tried to skimp on staffing of the polling stations.
A QC has advised anybody denied the right to vote to sue the electoral commission. That’s a complex course of action; Loving Dalston suggests that a first step should be to complain to the commission and demand financial compensation. The commission, busily – and to some eyes, hilariously — trying to shift the blame, says on its website: “We want to hear from voters affected by problems.” Go to Voting problems.
Contact Liberty, too. The civil-liberties group wants to hear from thwarted voters. A sizeable number of responses it will add to the pressure for the commission to pay compensation.
* The things you learn from Loving Dalston, the first site to report in a usable summary all the local election news, just as it was the first to sort out the mish-mash of misinformation over the East London Line.
3 thoughts on “Couldn’t get to vote? Send a bill for recompense”
Thanks, Miss Smith, for the link — useful for Loving Dalston readers. And Clear Hardly you seem stoical about being banished. I am annoyed that you had not been told about the boundary change. But, then, nobody bothered to explain it to the voters, let alone why; as I wrote in March. The report is at http://lovingdalston.co.uk/2010/03/the-junction-1st-with-the-facts/.
When I got my voting card I thought I’d been banished by the Wicked Witch of the South. But I was taking it too personally – they’d only moved the constituency boundary. I like the Abbott & Portillo double act, so I was gonn show my loyalty but the queues were so long I couldnt get in.
Thanks, Miss Smith, for the link — useful for Loving Dalston readers. And Clear Hardly you seem stoical about being banished. I am annoyed that you had not been told about the boundary change. But, then, nobody bothered to explain it to the voters, let alone why; as I wrote in March. The report is at http://lovingdalston.co.uk/2010/03/the-junction-1st-with-the-facts/.
When I got my voting card I thought I’d been banished by the Wicked Witch of the South. But I was taking it too personally – they’d only moved the constituency boundary. I like the Abbott & Portillo double act, so I was gonn show my loyalty but the queues were so long I couldnt get in.
Here’s the link to the Private Eye story about the Hackney election issue. [link expired]