Sheffield City Council has apologised for the two queue system imposed at Ranmoor Parish Centre at the election on May 6, promising that such discrimination will never happen again.
Only four election officers were present to supervise hundreds of voters.
The Council had already published an apology on their website to all the voters who were unable to cast their votes due to the chaos at the polling stations.
However the two queue system and alleged student discrimination were not mentioned.
Union President Paul Tobin met with Sheffield City Council Chief Executive John Mothersole on Friday May 14 to discuss what happened.
Paul Tobin said, “Voting is supposed to be a very quick affair and so the fact that students arrived two-and-a-half hours before the deadline and were still unable to vote is an outrage.
“So I went in looking for a full apology in terms of the queue system and a promise that it will never happen again.
“They took full responsibility and said that it was the council’s fault, not the voters’ or anybody else’s.”
He added: “I pressed them on an apology for the two queues explicitly.”
John Mothersole said: “We have of course reiterated our apology and explained that there was no intention to discriminate against students and I believe that was accepted.”
He declined his returning officer pay of £20,000 as an apology to voters who were turned away from the polling station.
He said: “I have never wanted to be one of those civil servants who failed to acknowledge mistakes and pretended lessons could never be learned.
“We recognise that we had problems at five of our 207 polling stations where we had phenomenal turnout and that was not acceptable.
“The only remedy, which we could not take, was to extend the voting times.”
It is reported that Mr Mothersole has not accepted his returning officer wages in previous elections.
Paul Tobin said: “It’s a positive sign to say that he’s doing it as a statement but this is obviously something he’s done before.”
Students present at the polling station on election night said they thought voting was not handled well.
Welfare Officer Jennifer Hastings said: “Everyone has the right to vote, and such an impressive student turnout should not have been overshadowed by such inexcusable treatment.
“The whole process needs to be reviewed to avoid the same happening again.”
First year Politics student Simon Meechan said that the Council’s apology was only partially acceptable:
“I am glad they apologized, however I would also like an apology for the use of students as scapegoats. I was told by someone in the polling station who I believe was an authority there that ‘students don’t normally vote’.
“I would like to know why they hold this attitude, and if it had anything to do with the lack of polling booths then I find it appalling.”
First year History student Thomas Wood said he was revolted at the handling of events.
“The scene was a shambles, with a huge turnout and little organisation. This is a profound failure on the part of the authorities and it deserves proper investigation.
“Students who voted at the polling station were treated as second-class citizens, in breach of their democratic rights.”
The Students’ Union will be fully involved in the planning of any future elections in Sheffield to avoid any similar situations in the future.
The possibility of opening polling stations at student halls of residence was considered with City Council.
Finance Officer Martin Bailey said, “Despite requests from the Union to have a polling station at the Endcliffe Village, where 4000 students live, those were denied because ‘students don’t vote’ but here we are with this situation.”
Paul Tobin said: “I think polling stations in halls of residence should be for both students and non-students.
“It would be a good way of getting people who aren’t students to see how friendly students are and how well we look after places.
“Also it means there is more availability in the other polling stations and it should solve a lot of problems.
According to the Electoral Commission’s report on the elections there were at least 1,200 people still queuing all over the country at 10pm.
It was revealed that too many voters were allocated to certain polling stations and many polling stations did not have enough staff.
It was also reported that the staff present did not respond quickly the problems that surfaced.
Recommendations to avoid future problems were also published
It was suggested that the law is changed to allow people who are still queuing at 10pm to vote.
Improvements to the local planning of election day were also mentioned.
The report had no mention of the two separate queues.
The NUS will announce its disappointment with the report’s demise of the situation.
Jenny Watson from the Electoral Commission said: “The Commission has previously called for better co-ordination and accountability, building on existing regional models.
“We have been saying for some time that our system is at breaking point. It was inherited from the Victorian era.”
Tobin commented: “Well, it’s been over a hundred years, what have they been doing in the meantime?
“I’m glad to see there’s something happening now because obviously there have been issues similar to this in the past.”
Human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson told The DailyTelegraph that people could get as much as £750 each in compensation for not being able to vote under the European Law.
“I’ve been in contact with lawyers from Liberty and would encourage any student affected to contact them,” said Paul Tobin.
“I am, however, delighted with the numbers of students who voted and tried to vote.
“Some people make the simple stereotype that students don’t vote and we proved that wrong last week, with voter turnout 10% higher than the national average.”
Tobin will meet with Nick Clegg to discuss both what happened at Ranmoor and proposals to abstain on a vote to increase university fees.