A Glasgow local has been denied the chance to cast their first-ever vote in a Scottish parliament election – despite being told they were on the electoral register.
Sammy Densham, who lives in the Anniesland area of Glasgow, arrived at his local polling station on Thursday to discover that he was not on the roll and would not be allowed to vote.
He was turned away despite having a letter from the city council saying that his electoral registration had been “successful”, our sister title The National exclusively revealed.
“I'd been thinking about voting for months, given the current political climate, and I honestly felt so angry when I found out that I wasn't able to vote just because of their stupid administrative mistakes,” Densham told The National.
It is understood that the 20-year-old had received an email from the council’s electoral registration office saying there had been an issue on April 14. However, he then received a letter dated April 15 saying that his “recent application to be added to the electoral register has been successful”.
It went on: “You will be added to the register on April 29, 2026 unless there is an election called before then, in which case you will be added to the register in time to be able to vote at that election.”
Densham said he believed the letter was an update saying that the issue outlined in the email had been resolved – but has now been told that it was sent out in error.
“I was very, very angry,” he said. “It's one thing if they had communicated that before and given me a chance to amend it, but they didn't even do that.
“They just sent a letter, but it was false information. I was really annoyed, to be honest.”
Asked how the situation could be remedied, Densham said: “Well, they could have given me the chance to vote on the spot.
“I don't know the logistics of that and whether that would be possible, but I don't really see any other way they could have compensated me for not being able to express my opinion in the election.”
The 20-year-old said he was “quite suspicious” he had not received a polling card – but he was not unique among his friends in missing one and thought it had just been delayed or lost in the post. He then found his local polling station by putting his address into an online tool.
He explained: “Basically the problem was I had just moved to this address. I lived in another flat like a month ago and I applied to vote at this address while I lived at my last address.
“Their reasoning for rejecting [the application] was because I should have applied at my old address and then transferred to this address on the electoral register when I moved in.”
A Glasgow City Council spokesperson said: “We will need to investigate this further and ask that the person contacts the electoral registration office to discuss.”
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