1) What is individual voter registration?
It means that each person eligible to vote can now register their vote as an individually.
The Individual electoral registration (IER) is the new system, introduced in June 2014, and replaces the old one in which the head of the household was responsible for registering everyone else who lived at the address.
Campaigners described household registration as Victorian, and the shift to individual registration is the biggest change to the electoral registration system in 100 years.
2) So how do people register?
To register, an individual needs to provide their name, address, date of birth and National Insurance number. And for the first time ever, each each person can now register online.
1.8 million people have so far used the online service, according to the Cabinet Office, and the number of applications has been highest among the 25-34 age group.
We also know that of all applications to register to vote under IER made since 10 June in England and Wales (and since 19 September in Scotland), approximately two thirds have been made via the online system, broken down by device as follows:
PC–67%
Tablet – 18%
Mobile – 15%
3) How are people transferred to the new register?
The transfer of registered voters in England and Wales to the new electoral registration system registered began in June 2014. Around 80% were automatically transferred to the new system – and existing voter details of the electoral register are checked against their details on the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) or local data.
If there’s a match, the voter is “confirmed” and automatically transferred to the new register.
4) How many people have been transferred then?
Well, a total of 42.4 mn electoral register entries were sent for matching against the DWP database. Approximately 36.9mn electoral voter entries matched and so the majority could be automatically transferred onto the IER registers, according to the progress report last autumn by the Electoral Commission. That’s 87% of the total number of records sent for matching.
5) What’s gone wrong?
It seems as though 5.5 million electors were not automatically transferred to the new registers. This is 13% of existing electors not matched.
The electoral commission say that the combined figure for those who could not be matched and those not on the registers at all is 7.5mn people.
5) Is it the same story across England and Wales?
No, there’s actually a bit of variation of transferring to individual electoral registration across England and Wales. It ranged from 59% in Hackney to 97% in Epping Forest. And in wards, the rate ranged from 7% in Oxford’s Holywell ward to 100% in Lancaster’s University ward.
6) What about the varying electoral sizes in different areas?
Yes it’s true confirmation rates alone don’t tell the whole story. For example, although Leeds achieved a 86% confirmation rate leaving it with 76,000 unconfirmed electors, Birmingham also had a high confirmation rate at 81% but with 143,000 unconfirmed electors. That’s a lot.
7) What about postal votes?
About 93% of postal voters were matched and transferred to the new system, which the electoral register sees as positive.
8) What about people who have just turned 18?
Yes, it looks as though only 52% of people who turn 18 during the latest electoral register – “attainers” as they are called – have been transferred to the new individual electoral register. This is down from 86% in 2013.
9) So what’s being done to make sure young people are registered on the new system?
The government have made £4.2 million the Government has made available to maximise registration during the transition to IER.
On top of this, last week the government announced extra funding. Sam Gyimah MP said, “The £9.8 million package announced by the Government today will give local authorities the resources they need to make sure they can invite people to register to vote. Alongside the national activity we are supporting to reach under-registered groups, I am confident we will head into the next election the most accurate and complete Electoral Register possible.”
But on the otherhand, parliament has rejected a proposal to project an image onto Big Ben of a vote going into ballot box to draw attention to National Voter Registration Day on February 5th. The proposal was rejected by the Administration Committee without explanation.
Graham Allen MP Chair of the Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee had proposed this to encourage those millions of citizens who have not yet registered to vote. He said of the decision that it makes some parts of Parliament look like it’s run by “old farts”
“With more people not voting than voted for both main parties added together in 2010, our democracy is in crisis. We need new and exciting ways to encourage people to register to vote. Parliament needs to lead by example and show even symbolically that our institution is serious about this major problem.”
10) What are young-would-be voters saying?
Well campaigners such as Bite the Ballot and the National Unions of Students have been calling on the Government to make voter registration as easy, engaging and accessible as possible during this transition to IER.
The electoral commission says that areas with lots of young people, aged 18-29 which includes students and people likely to be renting from a private landlord, are associated with low levels of electoral registration.This correlation is likely to be because people in these groups were less likely to have an up to date record on the DWP database related to their current address – primarily because they change address, on average, more frequently than the general population.
There’s been a huge drive by student organisations: and NUS have even set up a “general election” hub: http://www.newdeal2015.uk/
Registering to vote in their droves, NUS polling shows that 73 per cent of students that they represent were registered to vote by the end of last year compared to only two thirds in February 2014.
Students could swing the result in just over 10 constituencies according to the Higher Education Policy Institute, a think-tank.
Some universities have been doing much to increase the number of
University of Sheffield: When students register with the
University, they are given the chance to say if they want to be
on the electoral roll.
Only Latest NUS polling (August 2014) reveals that only 4 per cent of students strongly identify with any political party
