Eligible British residents have until midnight on Monday to register to vote in the 7 May general election, which is one of the most unpredictable the country has faced in decades.
Party leaders have been making renewed efforts to persuade potential voters to register, after Office for National Statistics data showed 800,000 people dropped off the electoral roll in 2014.
As the deadline looms, there are fears that next month’s poll will once again see a record low turnout, despite huge efforts to shake voters out of their apathy.
Last summer the Electoral Commission said 7.5 million eligible voters were not registered, with poor, black and young people least likely to be on the electoral roll.
But even among those who are registered, many seem likely to stay away from the polls. At the last general election in 2010, 16 million registered voters didn’t bother to exercise the right.
Ruth Fox, director of the Hansard Society, told the Guardian last week that turnout looked set to echo that of 2010, despite hopes that close contests in many constituencies might have encouraged more votes.
“That would be very disappointing because it would be one of the lowest turnouts on record. It has been a slow slide and there’s no sign of it reversing,” she said.
Party leaders David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg, Nicola Sturgeon, Leanne Wood, Natalie Bennett and Nigel Farage have all urged people to register in statements to the Guardian last week.
“If you don’t vote, you can’t complain,” said Farage, Ukip’s leader. Nick Clegg, deputy prime minister and leader of the Lib Dems, insisted the parties were not all the same, and that voting could make a difference.
Yet persuasive voices suggesting that voting is a waste of time have gained traction, particularly among the young. The comedian Russell Brand has emerged as a high-profile voice arguing that any vote is wasted because traditional politics is out of touch.
The austerity consensus among major parties and a sense of disenfranchisement by a political class that seems remote from real life have discouraged young and minority voters in particular, Guardian and Observer reporting has found.
The Labour leader, Miliband, made a special appeal to younger voters when he said last week that “only those who turn up to vote … will have the chance to decide how our country is run”.
He said: “With so many vital issues at stake in this election – from tuition fees to apprenticeships – it is absolutely vital that young people have their say. Young people across the country should register to vote and make their voices heard on 7 May.”
Clegg used a fast-food analogy to explain why he thought voting was important. “Not voting is like going to Nando’s, asking someone else to order for you and not getting what you like,” he said.
“The fact is, if you don’t vote, others will, and you will have to live with the result.”
Bennett, leader of the Green party, also pitched her appeal to younger voters. “Voting isn’t the only way to be involved in politics, but not voting is the surest way of letting politicians get away without representing you,” she said.
Registering to vote should take no longer than three minutes on the government’s website.
