The figure is about a million more than originally thought
Latest estimates by the Electoral Commission show that a million more people are not registered to vote correctly than was previously thought.
They have found that between 8.3 and 9.4 million people in Great Britain who are eligible to be on local government registers are not registered properly.
Cat Smith MP, shadow minister for voter engagement and youth affairs, previously shared data in a written parliamentary question that suggested the figure was around a million less than what is now estimated.
In her question on 2 September, using data from a 2016 study, she had found that between 7.8 and 8.5 million people were incorrectly registered.
Addressing the issue back in April, Labour said they were considering using an automatic voter registration as a new policy.
They suggested the idea after examining the automatic voter registration process in other parts of the world where it had been adopted successfully and increased overall registrations.
Reacting to the current findings about incorrect registrations, Cat Smith said it’s ‘absolutely shocking’.
“The Tories know that when lots of people are registered to vote, they are less likely to do well in elections, which is why the government has done nothing to address this unprecedented democratic crisis,” she explained.
“The Prime Minister even tried to fix the date of when a general election might happen to make it harder for students to take part.
“Ahead of the most important general election for a generation, it’s vital that every eligible voter can have their say, which is why Labour’s social media teams and our army of activists on the doorsteps will be working hard to increase voter registration.”
Lucy Skoulding is a freelance reporter at Left Foot Forward. Follow her on Twitter.
7 Responses to ““Shocking” result estimates 9.4 million incorrect voter registrations”
Robin CHAMBERS
Thank you so much for this information. My wife and I had no idea that this was happening and we are deeply shocked. With a General Election inevitable and only weeks away, it is essential that the mainstream media disseminate this shocking fact as widely and frequently as possible, and that everything is done in the coming weeks to ensure that people who are eligible to vote can indeed exercise their democratic right to do so. NOBODY eligible should ever be excluded from the fundamental right to vote. Shame on any government that seeks to deny this right to any group of voters by any means calculated to increase their chances of being re-elected.
William Glyn THOMAS
Time that British Tax Payers living abroad should be allowed to vote. No taxation without representation. Many countries have politicians elected to represent their citizens living abroad.
Patrick Newman
It is not clear just how many British adults are not even registered and therefore barred from voting. One estimate puts this at 8 million. The true number is likely to be in the millions and this would mean that the proportion of the adult population voting for leave is probably less than one third which is another reason for organising another referendum. This referendum catchment population would result from a loss of 1.5m deaths of mainly old people and a gain of about two million 18 to 21-year-olds. This may explain why militant leave supporters are terrified of another referendum.
Alasdair Macdonald
It has been a tactic of the powerful for as long as people have had the vote, to make it as difficult as possible for people who are unlikely to support the ruling cliques to register to vote. It is overt in many parts of the US to discourage/prevent black people and hispanics from voting. The successful Trump strategy in 2016 was to focaus on the Electoral College and to win in states which contributed large numbers of ‘College’ votes and the campaign was successful in this. He received more than 3 million fewer votes than Mrs Clinton, but won in states like Ohio.
The ‘Poll Tax’, although principally a way of making sure wealthy houseowners paid less tax on their property, had the effect of inducing many poorer people from not putting themselves on the voters roll because they believed it would make them less likely to be billed for poll tax. With increasing numbers of people in rented accommodation and often for fairly short periods, registration becomes more difficult and is low in terms of priorities like keeping warm, getting fed and finding some accommodation. And, there is the persistent narrative coming from the media that politicians are all in it for themselves and so voting is a waste of time. Sections of the left collude in endorsing this narrative by the way in which they criticise the current politics
In Scotland, during 2014, many on the left were at the forefront in encouraging people who lived in areas with high indices of social deprivation to register and this resulted in the very high overall turnout for the referendum – the highest for any election any time anywhere in the UK. Most of these newly registered voted for independence, and contributed to the YES vote in the former Labour strongholds of Dundee, Glasgow, North Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire, and very narrow NO majorities in places like Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire.
This shows voting can, indeed, change things.
Dave Roberts
There is just one thing wrong with all of this which is that people have to take the responsibility for themselves and register to vote. There is an easy online process where all you have to do is prove who you are and then register in your place of residence. The above article and three of the contributors seem to be laying the blame on some unspecified conspiracy to deny Labour voters representation. The right to participate in the democratic process means that we as individual have to make the effort.
What exactly is this automatic registration? There are references to how successful it has been elsewhere but, like the rest of this article, no proof. All a person who want to register is to have an address and proof of identity, it’s not rocket science and is there for reason. Firstly to prevent electoral fraud and also to stop people in this country illegally getting identification. Discuss.