Electoral registration changes will not disenfranchise voters
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Version 0 of 1. It is absolutely untrue that anyone will accidentally find themselves unable to vote because of the change to individual electoral registration (Early move to individual electoral registration risks disenfranchising 1.9m people, 29 July). Completing the transition this December will mean that all boundaries are based on the most accurate registers. The government’s approach is supported by electoral administrators. In fact, as the Boundary Commissions start their work next spring, individual electoral registration has already cleaned up the voting rolls significantly, getting rid of “ghost voters” and reducing the risk of fraud with new checks on ID. It’s been a huge success, with 96% of all voting rolls now confirmed as genuine. The remaining people have already been contacted five or six times and, if they still can’t be found, we’re going to try several more times this year, with extra government funds to make sure it’s done thoroughly. So anyone who hasn’t been verified will have been contacted nine times by the end of the year. If there’s still no reply after all that, there’s a high chance they aren’t real voters, so pretending they exist will simply make some constituencies unfairly bigger or smaller than they ought to be, and stop votes in one part of the country having the same weight as in others. I’m afraid that people who oppose this will make the voting registers less accurate, and elections less fair with a higher risk of fraud. People will conclude that they’re trying to hang on to the existing system simply because it gives them an inbuilt party-political advantage, and that they’re putting this ahead of what’s right and fair. If that isn’t gerrymandering, I don’t know what is.John Penrose MP (@JohnPenroseNews)Minister for constitutional reform |