Students have complained that they were denied the right to vote because of a decision to segregate student voters from other members of the electorate, the latter having been fast-tracked.
Wes Streeting, NUS National President said:
“Where students and other voters have been disenfranchised, local authorities should hang their heads in shame. It is outrageous that citizens should be denied their basic right to vote and we demand inquiry into how this situation occurred.
“We are alarmed by reports that students were placed in a separate, slower queue. Students’ unions have worked tirelessly to reverse the trend of low voter turnout amongst students and other young people. What message does this send to first time voters whose votes will not be counted?"
There are also reports of delays in the key student seats of Manchester Withington, Liverpool Wavertree, Hackney South and Shoreditch, and the City of Chester as students queued to vote in record numbers but faced huge delays and backlogs, including claims that polling stations ran out of ballot papers.