Saturday 22 February 2014

Registering

Rowenna Davis writes:

Picture this. You are 19 years old and you manage to get down to the polling station on election day. Maybe you finally make up your mind about who to vote for as you walk in the door.

But before you get that far, you're stopped. "Sorry Miss, you're not on the electoral register. I'm afraid you won't be able to vote today."

This kind of humiliation is already felt by many in this country.

Returning officers in Southampton, where I live, have told me horror stories about tension rising when a number of young people were turned away in 2010 simply because they hadn't registered. The sad fact is that just 56% of 19-24 year-olds are on the electoral register and eligible to vote, as opposed to 94% of those aged over 65.

Similar discrepancies are found if you compare home owners with renters, or black and minority ethnic groups with white residents. These people don't even show up on turnout figures. They are not just voiceless, they are invisible.

This crisis is about to get even worse under the government's new proposals for individual voter registration.

In the past, one member of a household could sign up everyone living at the property on to the electoral register. From June, every person will have to sign up individually or they can expect to be turned away at the ballot box.

Labour candidates have been shouting from the rooftops about this problem for some time.

Now Sadiq Khan, the shadow justice secretary, has come out in favour of allowing electoral registration on voting day, a system that has raised turnout in the US. It means that if someone turns up to the voting booth and realises they are not on the list, they can simply sign up on the day and still place their vote.

It's one of a number of measures proposed by Labour.

John Spellar, the MP for Warley, has been encouraging councils to let residents opt in to the electoral roll when they are in contact with public and government services, such as when making council tax payments, buying parking permits or applying for a passport.

It is telling that these measures are being picked up fastest in councils under Labour control.

The government says that individual voter registration is needed to prevent fraud, and I expect it would reject Labour's proposed solutions on the same grounds. The problem is that there is no evidence to support its position.

According to the Electoral Commission, there have been less than 10 proven cases of electoral registration fraud in the past four years, and it's not clear how this new system – which allows you to register online without a paper trail or signature to check – can solve this problem.

Even if by some weird twist the government proposals did reduce fraud, the cost in terms of potentially thousands of people dropping off the register and being turned away at the polls doesn't seem worth it. Why should the wrongs of a few mean that the many are punished?

So we must ask what the real motive behind these registration changes is.

Sadly, I fear it is in the Conservative party's interest to suppress the number of citizens who are able to vote.

This is a party that opposed universal suffrage and caused a massive decline in the number of people on the electoral roll through Margaret Thatcher's plans for a poll tax, which resulted in many people dropping off the list for fear of having to pay.

The party knows that the groups vulnerable to the change – renters, BME groups, young people – are unlikely to vote for it. The groups left voting will be the relatively powerful in society, and so our politics will become more likely to serve them and their interests, cutting the less fortunate out of the conversation.

Of course, all the technical solutions in the world will not fix the problems of declining voter turnout. There are huge issues that politicians and parties of both sides have to address to restore public trust and inspire people to want to register in the first place.

But the government's proposed changes will make things worse.

If individuals are being turned away from polling stations for reasons they cannot understand they will lose faith in democracy, and our political system is impoverished by becoming smaller. We cannot allow this to happen.

However you choose to vote, give yourself the choice. Register here and spread the word.

6 comments:

  1. Who on earth, at the age of 19, would want to vote for any of these parties?

    Labour's vote has collapsed ever since the 1950's-it used to lose elections with a far greater share of the vote (and higher number of voters) than it gets now when it wins them.

    It used to have millions upon millions of members-now it has less than a quarter of a million.

    Same trend, perhaps even worse, has happened to the Tories.

    Rowena obviously thinks universal suffrage is worth fighting for-why?

    I'm not even sure we benefit from it all.

    Liberty, on the other hand, (usually liberty from elected Governments) now THAT is worth fighting for.

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  2. This is a great idea.

    We ought to make it a heck of a lot harder for people to vote, so that only the tiny number weirdos who really really love Labour and the Tories should be allowed to either donate to or go and vote for them.

    That also means abolishing the political levy so that only trades union members who really really love Labour (about 5% of them according to Len Mcluskey) should be allowed to donate by opting in.

    Meanwhile any MP who fails to win 30% of the vote should be forced to stand for election again and again.

    This would be a fantastic way to kill the parties stone dead.

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  3. Indeed.

    Scepticism of universal suffrage democracy is profoundly British.

    Loving democracy as the be all and end all is a very Continental (and neocon) trait.

    Edmund Burke was right when he wrote "a pure democracy would be the most shameless thing on Earth".

    We ought to make it much harder to vote-and donate-to parties so that only those who really really want to do either, should be able to.

    The numbers would be tiny.

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  4. Has it ever occurred to you to compare your almost simultaneous comments on different posts? Evidently not.

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  5. I love the fact Miliband is now allowing people to sort of join Labour "without having to actually become a member" for just £3.

    Desperation is showing, Ed!

    You have no members because no normal person likes either you or the Tories.

    £3? That makes it a straight choice between joining Labour and buying a pint of Fosters.

    I know which most normal people would choose.

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