Scandal of the million voters ‘missing’ from electoral register
![[Image: BBC]](https://voxpoliticalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/140523ballotbox.jpg)
[Image: BBC]
The BBC reports: “Almost one million voters are “missing” from the electoral register in England and Wales, Ed Miliband is to say.
“In a speech, the Labour leader is expected to blame the “hasty” introduction of the new system of individual voter registration, with students particularly affected.
“People must now register to vote individually rather one member of a household filling in a form.
“Ministers say online registration has made the process easier.”
Seriously – that’s their response? That the process is now easier?
Then why are one million people now missing from it who would have been present before?
Mr Miliband is quite right to say that the number of young people not registered to vote is a “scandal” – and he’s quite right to be doing it at Sheffield Hallam University, in the constituency of Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader whose party helped the Tories push through this insult to democracy.
“Labour said 307 of 373 local authorities that provided data had recorded a reduction in their electoral roll. Overall there had been a reduction of 950,845, the party said,” according to the BBC.
Mr Miliband was expected to tell students: “This election is a hugely important moment for young people. It is a choice that will have implications now and for years to come. It is about who this country is run for: working people, young people, or just a very few people at the top?
“In this election campaign we will be publishing a Young Britain manifesto and you have the chance to help shape it by telling us what your priorities are for this campaign and for the next government.
“There is nothing more pressing at this election than the future of young people. The future of the country depends on young people and the outcome of this election will determine what kind of future young people have. Your job, your education, your home, your future depend on who wins this election.
“This government has betrayed young people. I am determined that we can fulfil the Promise of Britain so that the next generation does better than the last.”
This writer belongs to the last generation. So also do David Cameron and Nick Clegg.
In terms of performance, it seems clear that the next generation couldn’t possibly do worse than those two!
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I believe this is a deliberate nasty move by the Nasty Party, aided and abetted by their Lib Dem chums, to disenfranchise many people whose votes they don’t think they will get.
I am hopeful that students do see the light and what this nasty tory shower have done and the false promises they made in their manifesto prior to wriggling into power.
Your country needs each and every one of you to rid us of this vermin.
They cooking everthing else so now they found a way
to cook the figures yep the croked party at work
The thing is with students whilst they are still in education many have little interest in politics. It’s not until they leave education and have been unemployed for a while or forced into a shitty job that the real world bites! Then they see the empty promises they have been lead to believe. With some questioning the value of their education. If the state wants to find you they can its a pity more effort is not put into making sure people are registered to vote.
To me, that’s bizarre; when I was a student, everybody was political.
Just talking from experience of my son (now 22) and his friends. Maybe not a totally representative sample. I don’t think our political leaders are very inspiring for the young. I also think it’s true that many do not know they are not registered to vote. I asked my son yesterday and he wasn’t sure but then he’s moved 3 times in the last 18 months.
You may have put your finger on part of the problem. It’s not really about who the political leaders are at any particular time; it’s about taking part in the democratic process and saying what kind of country you want to live in. If you don’t actually use your right to vote, then you’re saying nothing apart from that you’re happy with whoever wins. If you do use it, the result could be very interesting. Suppose the three million young voters all decide that they will use their vote this time, and the majority go for the ‘smaller’ parties – SNP, Plaid, Green, even UKIP if that’s their fancy. That would send a message of seismic proportions through the political fabric of the UK.
Young people are not taught about the true value of democracy and how to engage with it. Most schools are run by the state and even if they aren’t then overall control on curriculum is by the state. Getting young people to understand that they do have power is an uphill struggle and even for a large proportion of the electorate. I’m sure that the state/establishment like it that way. They want you to be passive and just dump your ‘X’ in a box every 5 years. We just have to make not only the young but everybody see that “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” Thomas Jefferson
As you say Mike. When I was student age, although not actually a student, that was the most politically engaged I ever was. It seemed to have changed a bit these days, probably because of clamp-downs on protest combined with the media-led notion that all parties are the same. Whatever side we take on the Scottish referendum, and I know we are opposites there, it gave young people something to think about and debate. The 16 and 17 year olds allowed to vote for the first time really turned the clock back to my youth. It was obvious, from the day the Tories announced this change, that it was made on the assumption that youngsters who would probably be against them wouldn’t bother to register or vote, whereas older people, they hoped mostly Tory, always voted and would register. I just wish there was something that could be done in the rest of the UK, in such a short time, to engage younger voters.
Everything is going to plan. Its no wonder a lot of students did not register. If the student was not at home at the time to individually register online with other members of the family, then that opportunity is missed and forgotten, no reminders are sent out. I have also noticed that NI numbers where also required at the time of registering.
big brothers watching, and waiting.
mind you!! I cannot see any student voting for ol cleggy, not after the last stunt he pulled on students.
Two things Mike: Firstly this is required viewing in order to comprehend the level of gangsterism in western governance: (and the east; But first things first).
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/01/15/video-rich-mans-trick/
Secondly anything “registered”, whether it be your vote, your car, or even your child, then transfers title of what you are “registering” to the Government. You don’t gain rights, but lose them. As an example: The only reason Social workers can steal children is because the parents “registered” them.
Oh dear, you’re one of those ‘freemen of the land’, aren’t you? Good luck with all that.
I’m sure its going to be people with a mind of the own.. and not those that still believe their lies. Hey come to think of it they’re doing a pres Bush.. remember how they fixed it in 2000?
Someone should photoshop that photo to say “Ballot Fix” rather than “Ballot Box”.
I should’ve, shouldn’t I? Was trying to get the article out quickly and didn’t think of it.
You forgot to say that it was UKIP’s fault as well. Tut tut you are losing your touch.
It’s not UKIP’s fault, for once.
You see, I’m fair.
No coincidence that Labour and Tories both want to kick under-25s off all benefits I think. I would have been in shit at that age then, with dysfunctional family – I left at 18. What about those who have ‘positively’ abusive families, are they included in this too?
Also the constant referrals to ‘it’s online so everything’s ok’ really annoys me. There still exist 16% of households without an internet connection. If IT were free and easy to set up and make completely secure then maybe, maybe, it would be worth hanging our democratic rights on. But it isn’t. Why should we all have to be IT savvy just to get the most basic democratic right?
I was wondering why they don’t simply register everyone to vote automatically. If they can automatically send out your NI card why can’t they sort out an automatic voter registration on 18th birthday? Shouldn’t be that hard… they know where we live…
Labour doesn’t want to ‘kick under-25s off all benefits’. Where does this come from?
The ‘digital by default’ debate has been taking place on another thread, I think, where at least one commenter has pointed out that it’s not actually permissible for a service to be available online-only. It was in the comment column of the article about pensioners’ benefits and there was a link to the government website explaining the current situation. As far as I know, it’s only the Conservatives who want to go entirely digital and you can probably work out the rationale for yourself – in order to discourage people from claiming state benefits and give themselves an excuse to shut those benefits down.
Your third paragraph seems entirely reasonable. The only possible reason for them not doing so, it seems to me, would be that then they’d have to admit they know more about us than they’d like us to be aware of.
Even Thatcher never as far as I know deliberately tried to fix the election. In a few weeks I’m going to check that I’m on the electoral register, long before the April deadline. If this government is not ejected in 2015, at best, I’ll be back to living with my parents after a few years once my savings run out.
4 million young people are not on the electoral roll last I heard.
15 million people of all ages did not vote in 2010 who were eligible, which is double the entire lot of people who voted for all parties combined.
There are 11 million disabled who are hardly likely to come out and vote with all the problems they have now money-wise.
Your numbers are inaccurate. If you combine just the number of people who voted for the three main parties in 2010, you get 26 million. I reckon you meant half the people who voted for all parties combined.
As for the disabled – have you never heard of postal votes? It’s important that the disabled realise they have the option of voting from the comfort of their own homes (or at least nearest post box).
Chris, I think you need to read this, (that and go on a disability awareness course.)
http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/2555-could-claimants-choose-the-next-govenment