With only one week left to register to vote for the local elections, the Electoral Commission is reminding voters that they must be registered to ensure their voice is heard on 4th July.
The deadline to register is midnight on Tuesday 18 June.
The Electoral Reform Society (ERS) is warning that millions of people risk being left unable to vote in the general election as we enter the final week before the deadline to register. So far only 1.1m applications to register to vote have been made since the election was called, ahead of the voter registration deadline on Tuesday, June 18th. Last year, the Electoral Commission found that up to 8 million people were not registered to vote or registered incorrectly
The Electoral Reform Society is urging any unregistered voters to take the time to register this week to ensure they can cast their vote on July 4. The easiest way to register is via the government portal at gov.uk/register-to-vote.
Willie Sullivan, Senior Director of the Electoral Reform Society said, "With just a week to go before the voter registration deadline, the number of applications to register is being dwarfed by the amount of people missing from our electoral roles. This means a huge effort is needed to avoid millions of people being locked out of being able to have their say in the general election.”
There are substantial demographic inequalities in terms of the different people more likely to be registered to vote. Electoral Commission figures show that young people are far less likely to be registered to vote than older people, with 60% of 18 and 19-year-olds registered in Great Britain and 67% of 20-24-year-olds, compared to 96% of over 65s.
Voters who are registered also face a new potential barrier to casting their vote next month, as this will be the first general election where they will be required to show Voter ID at the polling station. Figures by the Electoral Commission show that 14,000 voters have already been prevented from casting their vote due to not having an accepted form of ID at last year’s local elections.
The Electoral Reform Society is calling for the next Government to make this the last election where voters must register to vote by bringing in Automatic Voter Registration (AVR). Wales is planning to introduce AVR, with legislation progressing through the Senedd currently. This should be introduced for 2026, pending a successful pilot.
The ERS is calling for AVR to be rolled out across the whole of the UK to make it easier for people to cast their vote and enfranchise the millions of missing voters.
You can find more information at https://www.gov.uk/vote-uk-election
