Electoral registration change delivers advantage to Conservatives – let’s level the odds

Last Updated: February 1, 2016By

Labour’s Gloria de Piero and Hammersmith’s MP, Andy Slaughter, knock on doors of people who have fallen off the electoral register [Image: Linda Nylind for the Guardian].

The change to individual voter registration has delivered the Conservatives exactly the advantage they wanted, with primarily Labour supporters losing their right to vote as a result, it seems.

The Tories intend other measures, such as the unilateral decision to cut Short money – funding provided to opposition parties to do their work in Parliament – and the Trade Union Act which cuts union funding to the Labour Party, to finish the job of rendering Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition incapable of resisting Conservative dominion.

It is an evil plan, with no redeeming features at all; the Conservatives are the enemies of freedom.

But it is not too late to foil the first part of the scheme.

UK citizens may register to vote until three weeks before the May elections.

Simply visit the government’s voter registration website HERE and follow the instructions.

If you wish to pass the address on to others, it is https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote.

The Tories want to end effective democracy in the UK. Let’s make that goal impossible for them to achieve.

An estimated 800,000 people have dropped off the electoral register since the government introduced changes to the system, with students in university towns at highest risk of being disenfranchised, the Guardian has learned.

Labour says it fears that the missing sections of the electorate are predominantly its supporters after the government moved from registration of electors by household to asking individuals to sign up, citing fears of fraud and error.

The estimated number of voters registered in December – the first figure under the new individual electoral registration system – is lower than in the previous year, with just months to go before May’s local, assembly and mayoral elections.

Overall 1.8% of voters are estimated to have dropped off the register across the population and figures compiled by the Labour party found the register had shrunk more dramatically in areas with a high population of students, such as Canterbury, which has seen a 13% drop, and Cambridge and Dundee West, both with an 11% fall.

Source: Electoral register loses estimated 800,000 people | Politics | The Guardian

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No Comments

  1. joanna February 1, 2016 at 12:47 am - Reply

    I’ve registered!

  2. Neilth February 1, 2016 at 12:50 am - Reply

    I’m out canvassing a lot recently with the build up to the Assembly and police commissioner elections. We definitely have holes in the register where we have addresses but not on the register. Many of them seem to think that they are being clever and running under the radar to avoid community charge etc.

    It would be a simple matter for our teams to drop voter registration reminders in to these unregistered addresses but we need a supply of cleverly worded cards explaining the illegality of failure to register and the possible consequences. There’s obviously a danger of alienating potential supporters if we get the wording wrong but it would remind people to register and could be to our advantage.

    I’ve mentioned this to the constituency secretary but there’s no obvious action yet. If we can do it soon enough then the cards wouldn’t be part of the election expenses.

  3. Rupert Mitchell (@rupert_rrl) February 1, 2016 at 8:15 am - Reply

    To try to take advantage when you are losing by changing the rules is nothing less than cheating. There is only one fair way for voting and that is by one man or woman one vote.

  4. casalealex February 1, 2016 at 8:56 am - Reply

    REGISTRATION TIME

    The Guardian splashes on a Labour analysis that 800,000 people have dropped off the electoral register since the government introduced individual registration, with many of those disenfranchised thought to be in university towns. Gloria de Piero is leading Labour’s campaign.

    But John Penrose, the minister who has steered the change through Parliament, is unrepentant on the need for reform. In fact, lower registration may well be seen as a success because Penrose has pointed out the Electoral Commission thinks upto 1.9m names on the register are ‘ghost entries’, and the implications for electoral fraud were ‘scary’. And that means inner-city areas, not just student towns.

    Still, registering those who are eligible to vote is undeniably a Good Thing and today figures from David Blunkett to Jamal Edwards will kick off a week-long national voter registration drive.

    The Waugh Zone

  5. Johnny February 1, 2016 at 9:46 am - Reply

    The labour party is a threat to the economic and national security of our country, so it is perfectly justifiable to use any means necessary to stop them gaining power, just as the SAS would take out a terrorist.

    • Mike Sivier February 1, 2016 at 9:29 pm - Reply

      As you seem willing to believe any nonsense your Tory masters dribble into your ear, I would suggest that the greater threat is posed by you, and people like you.
      Shall we use any means necessary to stop you supporting the Tories, then? By your own reasoning, in the light of the harm the useless Tories are doing, that would be perfectly justifiable.

    • casalealex February 2, 2016 at 12:22 am - Reply

      Hey isn’t that rule No.9 in the Book of Fifteen Rules for Trolls?

    • Neilth February 2, 2016 at 12:02 pm - Reply

      There’s nothing like a reasoned well constructed response to a comment, Johnny. And this is nothing like a reasoned well constructed response.

      Imagined threats to your way of life are more likely a figment of your fevered mind still anyone labouring under a name which is also a byword for a prophylactic is likely to be paranoid and imagine threats everywhere that doesn’t fit with their narrow world view.

      Sadly the Labour Party has not represented a threat to anything. Many of us simply wish that it represented a threat to unearned privilege but sadly we have never really done more than tinker at the edges.

      Labour does however represent a desire to improve the working and living conditions of the general population creating an environment in which the people’s aspirations can be realised rather than being thwarted to serve the wants of the few.

      Poor Johnny you really need to try to understand things before indulging in phlegm spouting diatribes. The real threat to British security is a party which withdraws forces from positions, thus signalling that we no longer wish to protect our interests. Eg in the early 80s when Thatcher decided she wanted to reduce the cost of the military she withdrew the naval presence from the South Atlantic. It had barely crossed the equator on its way home to be scrapped before ‘scrap merchants’ had landed on South Georgia. The rest is history. Funnily enough the present Government is doing the same in trying to shrink the cost of running an armed force they have decided to build aircraft carriers but not the aircraft for them to carry, to reduce the size of the standing army and replace them with part time TAs who while admirable in their spirit cannot be expected to be as prepared nor as immediately responsive as a prepared force.

      I’m no advocate for militarism but as I understand it the first responsibility of government is defence of the nation. The present Government are doing the exact opposite. They are focusing on Trident which, as demonstrated by the Falklands war is absolutely useless. Trident submarines armed with conventional weapons are actually more useful in that the versatility and effectiveness of that type of weaponry is a real deterrent because it could actually be used if necessary.

  6. NMac February 1, 2016 at 9:52 am - Reply

    The Nasty Party shows it blatant corruption and gerrymandering yet again.

  7. Michael Broadhurst February 1, 2016 at 11:13 am - Reply

    is there no end to this government’s corruption ?

  8. chris February 1, 2016 at 2:31 pm - Reply

    we must spread to word to everyone we know and tell them to register to vote! the torys will never end freedom and democracy if we fight and make other aware!

  9. mili68 February 1, 2016 at 9:09 pm - Reply

    Tweeted @melissacade68

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