The influence of the ions present in a liquid crystal on the dynamical response of a nematic slab submitted to a dc voltage is studied. The evolution of the system toward the equilibrium state is investigated by solving the continuity equation for the electric charge, taking into account the current of drift and of diffusion. Our analysis shows that the formation of the double layers close to the electrodes strongly modifies the distribution of the electric field across the sample. We evaluate the surface polarization due to the ions movements and the contribution to the anisotropic part of the surface energy having a dielectric origin. We show also that, even if the optical response of the liquid crystal is a slow phenomenon, the distribution of the ionic charge is rather fast. Consequently, the presence of the ions cannot be neglected in the determination of the flexoelectric coefficients when the nematic sample is submitted to a square wave having a period of the order of 1 s.