PCC Elections: Newport Polling Station Receives No Votes On Polling Day

Newport Polling Station Takes NO PCC Votes

The Police and Crime Commissioner elections have drawn shockingly low turnouts across the country and in some extreme cases, polling stations failed to record even a single vote.

Newport City Council told the Huffington Post UK that at one polling station in the area not one resident voted for their local PCC candidates all day.

The elections have been called a "comedy of errors" by the Election Reform Society, which has projected a lowly 18.5% national turnout - the smallest percentage in peacetime voting history.

Meanwhile, in Coventry, one Conservative councillor posted on Twitter that two separate polling stations in the city appeared to have received no votes on polling day, although Coventry City Council later told HuffPost UK that Cllr Ken Taylor's claim was incorrect.

On Friday, Labour strongly criticised the elections, with the shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper saying the elections had descended into a shambles.

Cooper said: "We warned the government repeatedly that they had the wrong approach and that turnout would be low. Theresa May and David Cameron didn't listen and it is shocking that they have spent £100 million on these elections rather than on 3,000 police constables instead."

Asked if the expected low turnout would be a disaster, police and criminal justice minister Damian Green told ITV's Daybreak: "It's a new idea and as will all new ideas it will take some time to get going.

"It would be better if more people voted but I think people will get more interested, when you try something new it takes people time to get up to speed on it."

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