HUNDREDS of Chester voters were potentially denied their right to vote on polling day after polling stations did not have an up-to-date electoral register.
Labour party workers are furious because the 623 people who registered late were not included on the list supplied to polling stations.
That meant officials had to ring through to the council main office to verify the authenticity of each person.
But the phone line was red hot meaning some voters hurrying off to work couldn’t hang around and were advised to return later.
Labour candidate Christine Russell, who is defending a 915 slender majority, said: “We had the latest lists of additions to the electoral register - why didn’t the local stations have that list? I have never known an election like this, where so many people have come to me and informed me they cannot vote.
“I will have to see the result first, but if the result is close, we would consider an appeal.”
Labour claims up-to-date lists were only sent out to the affected polling stations in the Lache, Blacon and Tattenhall, by 7.30pm - just two-and-a-half hours before polls closed.
A spokesman for Cheshire West and Chester Council, which organised the poll, said `a lot‘ of people not on the polling station lists were helped by officials who rang the main council office to check.
He said: “If people couldn’t wait we told them they could return. If people didn’t return then that must have been for their own reason.”
