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

Phoned my Electoral Registration Office today.

'I'd like to register to vote at my new address.'

'Um. That won't be effective for this election.'

'Why not? Still a month to go. It's only a few bits of paper. '

'You would have had to be registered by the end of October last year.'

'Ah, but we moved into this address on the 6th November 2004.'

'Oh, well, I'm afraid you wouldn't have been able to register for this election anyway then...'

'Sorry?'

'You would have had to be registered at the present address by the end of October 2004.'

'What?

'You can vote where you where registered before.'

'Ah. OK.'

'Even by proxy or postal vote. '

So, we find ourselves in the position of having to find the phone number for the electoral registrar in our former boroughs, and applying to vote there. Which means that as opposed to being in a borough where our votes MIGHT actually have made a difference

1) I get to vote in one of the safest Tory seats on the map

2) My partner gets to vote in a fairly safe Labour seat.

Democracy? It is to , as Bugs once said.

Actually that is incorrect there is a monthly update but you would still have had to have used rolling registration by the 11 March you can apply for a postal vote and from your current address however.

Great. Even better: I was lied to.

I can live with my own indolence costing me a vote, but the facts outlined by wwere making me really angry.

Ah well, blissfully I'm out of the country for the best part of a fortnight before the event and on the day itself so I shall be spared the prattling of idiot politicians for at least half the campaign.

Reading this thread has just made me realise I have not registered to vote at my new address....

Is there anything I can do to vote? I was registered at my old address?

Well you knew where I was. All you had to do was ask.

Oh, it's not a problem. Being selfish about it, none of the parties are going to do civil servants any favours, or as it was characterised to me;

'So, do I vote for a party that will probably make me redundant and certainly muck about with my pension, possibly make me redundant and is already trying to muck about with my pension or vote for a party taht will possibly make me redundant and possibly muck about with my pension?'

Yeah, you sould be able to vote at your old address. Your ballot card should be sent there.

Last time round, a friend of mine got sent two ballot cards, one at her paren'ts house and one at her student accomodation .

I think (but am not sure) that you can be registered to vote in two places, but it would be illegal to vote more than once. Therefore, students who find that their parents and their university halls have registered them can vote either at 'home' or at uni, but not both. Can anyone back me up on that? Or tell me I'm talking nonsense?

David

That is indeed correct students can be registered both at home and college but can only vote in one location.

Oh, dear! Another opportunity for rigged voting then? Who would be checking they don't vote twice, or someone else has not voted on one of their cards?

It gets worse!

Websailor

I did put a conversation line in "Ask" just before 11 March reminding people to make sure they were registered ... but it is very tiring when we are talking to the fiftieth elector to ring up today with this problem. I very nearly did say "Computer says no" to one such person last week. I would probably have had some sympathy with this situation, which seems to have been caused by the timing of moving house, though.

A well-organised council would have included a note about electoral registration with your very first council tax bill after you moved in. We do

Students are the only section of the population actively encouraged to register at two addresses, but as far as I know it is impossible to police whether or not they cast two votes, or if somebody else uses their vote at one of the addresses. But you don't need a poll card to vote; you arrive at the polling station and declare your identity. Somebody could conceivably get there before you and pretend to be you, and if they stand in front of the presiding officer and say, I am Spartacus Bloggs of 4 Acacia Avenue, the presiding officer has very little choice but to hand over a ballot paper and cross the name off the list of voters. Then when you turn up two hours later and say, *I'm* Spartacus ... ooh, the entire election could come unstuck.

Our entire electoral system is to a large extent based on trust.

Not an uncommon problem. I could have voted twice last time round as well. I didn't, but I don't see how they'd have stopped me.

I'm tempted to go buy 50 disguises and have them in a little box outside the electrol office. Then again I'm not sure if anyone cares if I ruin 50 times as many papers as I normally would.

Impersonation is an electoral offence which was prevelant in Northern Ireland which is why there some form of ID is required before you are given a ballot paper.

Wow. I shouldn't use this post for political purposes - which means, behaving in unison or response to other humans doesn't it? How queer.

So to summerise:

It's too late to register if you're not on any register.
But you can register to vote by post as long as you are on AN electoral roll.

Questions:
Is it an offense to vote in a constituencey in which you no onger live?
Can you transfrer addresses within one constituency?

Answers:

1. No, it is not an offence to vote in a constituency other than the one in which you live. Where you live is irrelevant for voting purposes. It is where you are registered to vote that matters.

2. No, not in time for 5 May.

But:

a. If your new address is sufficiently close to your old address for you to travel to your "old" polling station on 5 May (ring your local council to find out which is the polling station *for the address at which you are registered to vote*) then you can still turn up to vote in person, even if your poll card hasn't been forwarded to your new address.

b. If you have a postal vote, you cannot vote at a polling station.

c. Hmm, there is a c, but it's legally fraught. If you have a postal vote, post it.

Mol