Public vote with their feet for new police watchdogs - and stay at home Social media was flooded with reports of pitifully low turnouts across the country as the Electoral Reform Society labelled it a "comedy of errors." In Norfolk it was feared as few as four per cent of the public would vote while a polling station in Oxford was predicting just three per cent and one in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, warned of one per cent. A village hall in Belstead, near Ipswich, had just seven people through the door in its first nine hours. "The lady looked very lonely," Sam Waters, of Cellar, 27 said. Another said: "I'm a caretaker at local polling station we had 4 punters since 7am ." A man in West Yorkshire said: "At my Leeds polling station 29 voted out of 1100 voters, but on the bright side one of them was dressed as spiderman." Elsewhere in Leeds it took two hours for the first voter to turn up. Four people slumped at desks in Holgate, York. When I left one said 'that's the rush over,"" said another. A voter in Southampton said: "Out of 2500 able to vote in PCC at my polling station 35 have voted and we have 3 stations on my estate." Polls opened from 7am but by midafternoon people were reporting being the tenth or 18th or 50th person to vote. Polling clerks were "twiddling their thumbs" in Bournemouth and "doing puzzles" in Yorkshire. In Manchester, one said: "I went to vote at 10am and asked if they had been busy. Answer "You're number 10."" Another added: "I was jumped on by three staff." Only a handful of people have been seen heading into a polling station in a caravan in the car park of Tesco supermarket in Fulbourn, Cambridgeshire. Many voters reported the poor turnouts on Twitter via Paul Waugh, of the Politics Home website. Liberal Democrat sources were last night predicting former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott may lose his bid to be Humberside PCC despite being a front-runner. David Cameron, the Prime Minister, tried to encourage voters saying: "We're helping police forces be more accountable. I've voted in the first ever PCC elections. I hope you do too. The introduction of PCCs is the largest shake up of the policing structure in half a century but the Home Office was criticised for refusing to offer a free mailshot for candidates, as happens in other elections. Instead it set up a website and spent £3 million on television adverts as well as £75 million to hold the elections in November. The public have complained that they have been left in the dark over who they are voting for. The National Association of Electoral Adminstrators warned last night turnout could be as low as 15 per cent and warned that would damage any mandate the successful candidates had. Labour sources predicted a 20 per cent turnout while Ukip MEP John Bufton called for Theresa May, the Home Secretary to resign over the "disastrous" elections. Katie Ghose, chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society, said: "This election has been a comedy of errors from start to finish. Polling stations are standing empty because voters knew next to nothing about the role, let alone the candidates they were expected to pick from. The Conservatives were braced for defeat in the Corby by-election, with the added humiliation of a strong showing by the UK Independence Party. Voters in the marginal seat chose a new MP yesterday following the resignation of Louise Mensch. A result is expected on Friday afternoon, and Tories are expecting to lose decisively to Labour. Ukip is also expected to poll strongly, putting Mr Cameron under pressure to toughen his own position on the European Union. The Prime Minister's staff are working on a major speech setting out his vision of Britain's place in Europe, but the speech has been repeatedly delayed. Conservative sources said advances by Ukip in Corby could force Mr Cameron to finally deliver the long-awaited speech.