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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Politics
Niamh McIntyre

General election 2017: Just hours left to register to vote

Time is running out to register to vote in the general election, as applications must be submitted by midnight on Monday 22 May.

Over the last month more than two million people have registered to vote, including 700,000 people under the age of 25.

However, the Electoral Commission estimates there are still seven million people who are at risk of dropping off the register before the deadline.

Thirty per cent of under 34s are still not registered to vote, while only 28 per cent of those who have moved home in the last year will be able to vote at their new address, according to the Commission.

There is expected to be a surge of last minute applications, as there was in the EU referendum, when the deadline was extended by 48 hours after the website crashed in the final few hours.

Applications have steadily been increasing over the last week. In the past week, 883,313 people have registered.

It usually takes around five minutes to register to complete an application on the gov.uk site.

Voter registrations since the snap election was called (www.gov.uk)

In the 2015 general election, 500,000 people registered to vote on deadline day.

Under 25s have consistently been registering in higher numbers than any other age group, according to the government’s voter registration site. On Sunday, under 25s accounted for 43 per cent of sign-ups.

Despite the spike in young voters' registrations, the group are still significantly less likely to vote than older demographics.

The Labour Party in particular has been attempting to engage young voters through social media campaigns such as #grime4corbyn, which has been endorsed by JME and Stormzy.

Jeremy Corbyn announced Monday that a Labour government would scrap tuition fees starting university in September, in a move which appears timed to further drive up last minute registrations among under 25 year olds.

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