A woman said she felt patronised after she was could vote in the EU referendum - but was offered a “pretend” one instead.

Nursery teacher Dina Erlich, 26, of Green Lane, Hendon, was refused a vote at Hendon School polling station last week when staff said she had already been ticked off their register.

The system for voting last week required registered voters to declare their name and address at the polling station, with no polling card or ID needed.

Ms Erlich said she believed it was either a clerical error at the polling station or someone had come in and voted falsely under her name and address.

Staff at the polling station then offered her a tendered ballot which are provided when an error like this occurs.

However, this would have only counted if other tendered ballots had to be issued at the same polling station.

Ms Erlich told the Times Series she decided not to take up this offer as it felt like a “mock vote” and not a real one.

She said: “I was devastated when they told me I couldn’t vote and their patronising resolution made it even worse. I felt like something very essential had been taken away from me without consent.

“Until about 100 years ago, women did not have the right to vote. I read a lot about women’s history and how they fought and died to win our equal rights.

“To me, it feels like voting is an historical responsibility to all women, no matter what they are voting for and what the particular vote is about. It was painful to have my ability to fulfil that responsibility torn away.”

Bosses at the council said the tendered ballot process was the only thing they can legally offer to any voter when a mistake like the one experienced by Ms Erlich happens.

A council spokesperson, who the authority did not name, said: “We cannot discuss individual cases, however if a voter came into a polling station and their name had already been marked as having voted then enquiries would be made and a tendered ballot paper may be issued.

“Tendered ballot papers are issued under certain circumstances, for example if the register of electors shows that a voter has already been issued with a vote, but they dispute this is the case.

“The correct procedures for issuing a tendered ballot paper as set down in law and were followed.

“No tendered ballot papers were issued in Barnet for the EU Referendum.”

The mishap comes after people in Barnet were unable to vote in May’s Mayoral Elections because polling lists were issued incorrectly, affecting 239,196 registered voters in the borough.

Andrew Travers, the authority’s chief executive and returning officer, stood down following the fiasco.

An independent investigation into what happened concluded the mistakes were “avoidable”.