Fury as hundreds turned away from polling stations - VIDEO

Voters were turned away from polling stations in Sheffield Hallam, where Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg was standing.

A number of voters, mainly students, were turned away after attempting to vote shortly before the 10pm deadline because they did not have polling cards.

The Yorkshire Post has received emails from students who had queued in Sheffield since 6.40pm, only to be turned away at 10pm.

One said voters had been "segregated" into queues of students and non-students.

Some voters later gathered to protest outside Mr Clegg's house.

Students who were prevented from voting attempted to prevent ballot boxes being removed from Sheffield's Ranmoor polling station.

A Sheffield City Council spokeswoman said: "There were some students who did try to stop the ballot boxes but they all went away to be counted as normal."

A Facebook group has been set up in protest at treatment of student voters at the polling station in Ranmoor.

Comments on the website indicate residents were directed to a "fast track" queue whereas students had to wait for around two-and-a-half hours.

One Sheffield University student, Kate Eleanor Baldwin, wrote: "Initially it was just divided by registry number, which meant Ranmoor students were put into the fast track queue."

But in the evening, "with an increase of voters, this fast track queue was only available to what they referred to as a 'resident queue"', she said.

Sheffield's deputy returning officer Lee Adams said around 200 people were turned away at Ranmoor.

Police were called to deal with a crowd of around 100 people who were angry at being denied the chance to cast their ballot, she said.

Ms Adams admitted staff "couldn't cope" with the number of people who turned up to vote.

"We increased the staffing at about 4pm when the staff at the polling station told us they needed help, so we did that straight away.

"Unfortunately, the combination of the numbers turning up and the fact that many were students and didn't have their polling cards just meant it took longer to process and make sure the right person had the right ballot paper and we just couldn't cope, basically.

"So, extremely apologetic and distraught about that, but at 10pm unfortunately we couldn't process any more votes and so people there were turned away."

The people turned away included some who had made it inside the polling station, which was located in St John's church hall.

Five police officers were called because staff were concerned for their safety.

"People were angry, understandably, particularly the students. They wished to stay and find out what happened."

She said she was not aware of any "fast track" system being used to discriminate against students.

John Mothersole, returning officer for Sheffield, apologised to residents who were unable to vote.

He said: "We got this wrong and I would like to apologise.

"We were faced with a difficult situation with the numbers of people, and a large amount of students turning up to vote without polling cards.

"This made the administration process of ensuring the correct person was given a ballot paper much longer.

"The only remedy, which we could not take, was to extend the voting times."

However, in Lewisham, south London, there were reports that the polling station stayed open for half an hour beyond the 10pm deadline to allow people to vote.

In a statement, the Electoral Commission said: "It is a cause for serious concern that many people who wanted to vote today were unable to do so by 10pm when polls closed.

"Each returning officer is responsible for deciding numbers of polling stations in their constituency and the numbers of electors allocated to each polling station.

"By law, polls must close at 10pm and any voter issued with a ballot paper by 10pm should be allowed time to cast it, but no ballot paper should be issued after 10pm.

"There should have been sufficient resources allocated to ensure that everyone who wished to vote was able to do so.

"The Electoral Commission will be undertaking a thorough review of what has happened in those constituencies where people have been unable to vote."

Voters in Hackney, east London, staged a sit-in protest at a polling station in Triangle Road when they were told they could not vote after being forced to queue for more than an hour and a half.

At least 150 people were still queuing when the polls closed, according to Andrew Boff, Conservative mayoral candidate, and the number unable to vote could have been double that, as some had given up in the face of the long queues.

"At 10pm the ballot boxes were closed and people were told they would not have a vote," he said.

"People were very angry."

Another polling station in Manwood Road, Lewisham, south London, where around 300 people had yet to vote by 10pm, was said to have stayed open for an extra half hour to allow residents to cast their vote.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson acknowledged on BBC News that the situation could lead to legal challenges.

"What the returning officers should have done is brought everyone in and locked the door."

He said he was concerned about the failure of some people to get in and vote because traditionally Conservatives voted earlier than Labour supporters.

Tory party chairman Eric Pickles commented: "It's ridiculous. Of course people should be able to vote.

"Surely to goodness the returning officers could have just put the people in the polling station and continued."

Shadow business secretary Kenneth Clarke said he was "very sorry" to hear about reports of problems at some polling stations.

"It's very worrying indeed," he told Sky News. "I feel sympathy for the people who were trying to do the thing they should do, go along and cast a vote.

"I trust somebody sorts out what on earth went wrong and made it so difficult for people to vote.

"I'm obviously not going to leap to any conclusions about what went wrong in Sheffield, Manchester and Islington but the returning officers may owe people an apology if it's in any way down to them and I think we ought to get an explanation."

He added: "The Electoral Commission might prove its worth by making sure it never happens again."

ITV News showed amateur footage which the channel said was of people being turned away from a polling station in Manchester Withington.

Labour former Home Secretary John Reid said: "If the whole point of the television debates... is to bring more people out - provided, of course, that they arrived before the polls were due to close, and we don't know that from those films - but if they did and didn't get a chance to exercise their democratic right to vote, then that is a very bad show."

Asked if the situation amounted to a "scandal", Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell replied: "I think it is.

"These are queues of people exercising their democratic right and then being denied it."

She said the administration of elections fell to local authority returning officers and it would be important to investigate individual circumstances afterwards.

Mr Pickles demanded: "How can a polling station actually run out of ballot papers? Not to have sufficient ballot papers seems ridiculous."