h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I usually nag about this at least once a year, because every election day I'm at the frontline of democracy (ie, in charge of a polling station for a day). And once or twice somebody has turned up to vote and found they were not on the electoral register, so they couldn't.

In the UK, there is a new electoral registration system, where voters have to register individually rather than by household. It looks like some people (many of them students) may have dropped off the register as a result.

Checking the electoral register is the first step in any credit check so it's worth being registered even if you don't intend to vote (but I will nag about that separately nearer the time )

So, if you know you are not on the electoral register, please get on and do it - it takes about 2 minutes on the .gov website (you'll need your passport).

If you think you *are* on the electoral register, CHECK. You can do this at your local council offices (you used to be able to do it at post offices and libraries as well, but I'm not sure if that's the case nowadays). Mistakes do happen in the preparation of the register, and checking your own registration is a civic duty.

Nag over

Mol

as a matter of interest - what happens if you don't have a passport?

You can register on line
details at
http://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30842676
Claims of nearly 1 Million people missing from the electoral register.

"(you'll need your passport)."
Not if you are in the UK just your National Insurance Number

Can I just add that if you're planning to vote UKIP, please don't bother registering.

No Icy
Can they please post their details here so we can point and laugh

oh I could totally fake register, I still have my NI number... and a passport

*note to MI5 and whoever: I am not actually going to do that

Sho
I think there is a bit on the site for people living abroad.
http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/faq/voting-and-registration/can-i-still-vote-if-i-move-overseas

>>British citizens living abroad for more than 15 years are not eligible to register to vote in UK elections. <<

That certainly rules me out. Sho, too, I think.

Non Voters outnumbered the supporters of every single political party in 2010.



http://t.co/ZVzIGuoV5H

it used to be 20 years (Thatcher introduced that) and my dad was my proxy. But at some point, when I decided I probably wasn't going to move back, I stopped.

Having left the country at 19, I've never been able to vote anyway. But I think I am repeating myself now.

Nod used her passport (mainly because it was easier to say 'bring your passport' instead of 'bring that letter from 3 years ago that tells you your National Insurance number, you remember, no not that one' etc) - which is why passport came to mind.

I don't really care what people put on the ballot paper. I just want people to exercise their right to participate in elections. If 100% voted, and 65% of those ballot papers were spoilt papers, that gives a much clearer message to politicians than 65% of people not turning up at all.

But I think I may have stated this too often at home: nowadays Nod can recite the relevant rant to me before I've actually started it .

Mol

Yes
But can Nod get her friends to check they are on the register?


and it looks like the 1 million missing may be as high as 7.5m overall

Voter figures
Voters:

In 2013 the number of people registered to vote – the electorate – for general elections was 46,139,900.

Missing voters:

It is estimated that 7.5 million people eligible to vote at the 2015 general election are not on the new individual electoral register.

There are millions of British citizens living overseas that are not registered to vote at all.

from the sidebar on
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/16/britains-1m-missing-voters?CMP=twt_gu

There's swathes of people who simply don't want to be on the Electoral Roll - in 2009 whilst compiling canvassing reports for NE Glasgow we were finding streets where as few as six or seven people were accurately recorded on the list.

As to spoiling the paper, I reckon if 65% of ballots were spoiled, politicians would conclude 65% of voters are too stupid to put a cross in a box.

I'm afraid that many politicians *do* think people are that stupid. Otherwise, why would so many pols say ridiculous things and think the people believed them?

"Not if you are in the UK just your National Insurance Number"

Yeah, right.

Oh wait - You must have meant in your bit of the United Kingdom.

What do they want that's different in NI???

They might get the message if all the spoiled papers had "None of you lot", or words to that effect, scrawled across them.