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Did you know that the way you register to vote has changed?
Individual electoral registration was introduced in England on 10th June 2014 and the deadline for switching to the new system has been brought forward to December 2015.
In the old system, one person in every household was responsible for registering everyone else who lives at that address. Under individual electoral registration, each person is now required to register to vote individually, rather than by household.
Under Individual Electoral Registration you need to provide ‘identifying information’, such as your date of birth and national insurance number, when applying to register and your application will need to be verified before you are added to the register. Anyone unable to supply this information can provide an alternative form of evidence of their identity.
Registering to vote is a simple process and can be completed in 5 minutes using the government web site: https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote
Use this service to:
- register to vote
- update your name, address or other details on the electoral register
You’ll need your National Insurance number (if you have one)
You need to be on the electoral register to vote in elections and referendums.
South Cambridgeshire District Council has had a drive to get electors registered under the new system.
An article appeared in the South Cambs magazine promoting their operation
Every household in the district received an initial household enquiry form asking them to confirm or update the information
- About 65K
Those households that didn’t return a household enquiry form received a reminder
- About 25K
SCDC have just sent canvassers round to door-knock non responders with final reminders
- About 10K
Overall response rate to SCDC enquiry forms is 92% so far
Any residents added to a form have subsequently been invited to register, encouraging them to go online if they can
Anyone who does register successfully is sent a confirmation letter. Households that are confirmed with no changes do not receive further correspondence as it would be prohibitively expensive
Young voters
The Electoral Commission’s latest analysis shows that “areas with a high concentration of certain demographics – students, private renters and especially young adults” – are particularly in danger of having low registration numbers.
If you have family members in these categories, no longer living at home, ask them if they have registered to vote.
More information will shortly also be found on the SCDC site: https://www.scambs.gov.uk/content/electoral-registration-faqs
