Please don't blame the "bungling go slow staff", having worked in polling stations in the past - thankfully not this time - I can say that the training is extremely basic, and the staff just have to go through the motions of a system they have no control over.

My feeling is that councils have been trying to save money by perhaps reducing the number of polling stations; at any event, the turnout was totally predictable, and not much more than previous years - perhaps even less when postal votes are taken out - , and seeing the queues building up through the day, the lock-outs were foreseeable too; the returning officer (not the polling station staff) should have ensured that ballots were issued to all those in the queue by ten pm to allow them to vote.

The Returning Officer's refusal to apologise is extraordinary; must be the fault of the electorate for bothering to vote, or are we going to be told about students withour polling cards? Another totally lame excuse, students have always been a pain, and if the polling district register is a manageable size (if there are enough polling stations) finding someone's name on the register without a polling card causes only a slight delay.

I think that Bernstein should resign, his attitude is shameful.