The north London borough elected three Conservative MPs at last year’s general election including Theresa Villiers, the Northern Ireland Secretary.
Voters overwhelmingly voted for Tory Boris Johnson at the last election and even the council in Barnet is Tory held.
Now Conservatives say they worry Goldsmith could lose the mayoral seat after some of the borough's 236,000 registered voters - who tend to vote blue - were told they could not cast their vote today.
The error with polling station lists left thousands unable to vote in Barnet, north London - with "whole streets" worth of people missing altogether from the registration documents.
People were told to come back later to vote in the mayoral and GLA elections, but many said they were unable to return.
Labour's Andrew Dismore, who is defending his seat on the Greater London Authority, claimed the Barnet polling stations had "supplementary registers", containing only voters who had registered in the last few weeks, rather than full ones.
He said: "It's the usual voting fiasco that happens every time in Barnet.
"The supplementary register is only a dozen pages long, whereas the full registers are the size of a phone book. It's a complete schoolboy error.
"Of course I'm angry about it. There is a cock-up every time, but this is one of massive proportions. This is a marginal constituency."
Mr Dismore said it is not the first time something like this has happened to the Barnet electorate, adding: "In 2010, I lost my seat as MP, because of Barnet council errors, by just 106 votes.
"There were long queues to the polling station and polling cards arriving after the election."
Barnet Council has apologised to all voters and asked them to return to polling stations later on today when they plan to have put emergency measures in place.
They said in a later tweet: "Polling stations not legally allowed to stay open beyond 10pm. However, people can vote if already queuing at a polling station at 10pm."
In a statement Andrew Travers, Barnet council’s returning officer, said: "We experienced problems with our electoral registration lists earlier today, which meant that a number of people were unable to vote at polling stations in Barnet first thing this morning.
“We did everything we could to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and updated lists were sent to every polling station by 10.30am, at which point all residents were able to vote as normal.
“Information about how people could apply for an emergency proxy vote before the 5pm deadline was made available for those unable to return to polling stations to vote in person.
“Taking part in the democratic process is a fundamental right for our residents and the main focus this morning was to resolve the situation as soon as possible. We will fully investigate the cause of the problems that have arisen. I would like to apologise to everyone who experienced problems with voting in Barnet today.”
Barnet Council said it is aware of the problem
But the scandal could affect the chances of Tory mayoral candidate Goldsmith taking the top seat - as thousands of those left unable to vote in the borough are likely to support Conservative.
His team said today there had "clearly been a major problem" and appealed to voters turned away from polling stations to return later.
The political reality means Labour sources have dubbed the failure a ‘blue-on-blue’ blunder – Tory voters most likely losing out from problems created by a Tory-run council.
The crisis also comes with Labour’s build-up to election day overshadowed by an anti-Semitism row that has seen support for the party among Jewish people drop to eight per cent, according to a recent poll.
Barnet also has the largest Jewish population of any borough in England and Wales – 15 per cent of all residents are Jewsish – according to the 2011 census.
Around one in three of London’s Jewish residents lives in Barnet, or around one in five of those in England and Wales.
Among those caught up in the blunder is Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and his wife Valerie who turned up at a polling station in Barnet on their way to the airport and were turned away.
A spokeman for the Chief rabbi said he had been left "disappointed" at the experience as he will be unable to cast his vote as he will be out of the county.
Also affected by the catastrophe was the husband of former EastEnders actress Michelle Gayle.
She tweeted that her husband had turned up to vote in Barnett at 7am and was turned away, adding he was unable to return again later to vote and asked: "What happens now?"
Meanwhile Barnet resident, David Fraser, who lives in Oakleigh, said he turned up at his local polling station at 7.20am and was turned away.
The 36-year-old told Express.co.uk: “It was just a joke. For the first time in my life I haven’t been able to vote because what looks like a cock up.
“I’ve got a busy day, I’ve got to go to work. I don’t have the opportunity to get back and vote before 10pm tonight, so I walked out unable to vote and I won’t vote.
I believe in everybody’s democratic rights and it’s very important to vote. I have voted in every election and this will be the first one since i have been able to that I haven’t voted in.
“I am not very happy about it. I have paid my taxes and I would quite like the opportunity to vote and I have been denied that.
“This will have to affect the outcome of the election. There seems to be plenty of people who haven’t been able to vote.
“It does call into question the legitimacy of whoever ends up winning the election if a lot of people haven’t been able to vote."
Other angry voters also took to social media to vent their anger at the mix-up, with many blaming the fact the council had outsourced its electoral department.
Erol Izzet said: "Disgraceful! Problems voting in Barnet. Despite turning up with voting card told am not on the list and a dispute about whether I can vote."
Mark Lewis wrote: "No Democracy for Barnet = No Democracy for London. Shambles."
James Cooray Smith said: "Barnet, council that sent out wrong voter lists, is the one that outsources everything it can including electoral services. It's its USP."
Claire Toon said: "Voters in Barnet are being turned away, unable to vote for London Mayor due to register not having arrived. Undemocratic."
Barnet Council said in a statement to Express.co.uk: “We are aware of problems with our electoral registration lists this morning at polling stations in Barnet which have meant that a number of people who had not brought their polling card with them were unable to vote.
“We are advising residents to bring their polling cards. If people were unable to vote this morning they are being advised to return if possible later before the stations close at 10pm. We apologise for the problems.”
However, there are growing calls for the election to be scrapped and rescheduled with reports that some people are turning up to vote and have already been marked off as having voted.
Barnet Liberal Democrats called for a "full public inquiry".
Party spokesman Alasdair Hill (COR) said: "It's a complete scandal. It's an affront to democracy to not allow all voters to vote.
"People who vote early are unlikely to be able to vote after work, that is why they turn up early.
"We are calling for a full public inquiry in to what caused this. In the first instance it will be referred to the Electoral Commission."
Mr Hill also suggested there could be legal issues with the way some polling stations were dealing with the situation.
Mr Hill said: "This is just from what I've heard, but some polling stations were telling people to come back with their polling cards and if they weren't listed they could vote anyway.
"That means anyone could pick up anyone's card and come in to vote. If that's the case there could be some sort of legality issue there."
The issue has now been referred the issue to the Electoral Commission, which overseas the election.
[Express]
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