Time to check whether you are registered to vote

Time to check whether you are registered to vote. As there was a Police and Crime Commissioner election on 5 May, if you received a postal vote or voting papers to go to the polling station for that, you are registered,. If you did not or you have moved since then you will need to take action to be able to vote in the EU Referendum on 23 June.

Press Release from Cornwall Council on being able to vote on EU Referendum:

Have you already registered to vote?  If the answer is YES then you do not need to do anything else at this time.

If the answer is NO, and you want to vote in the EU Referendum, you need to register to vote by Tuesday, 7 June.

When the revised electoral register for Cornwall was published in December 2015, there were 396,474 voters on the register.  This number increased  by nearly 18,000 to 414,461 in time for the Police and Crime Commissioner elections.

The intense publicity around the EU Referendum has led to a further flurry of applications to the Council’s elections service over the past few weeks from people wanting to register to vote. As of this week the number of people on the electoral register is 415,645.

However, while some of the applications are from people who have not yet registered to vote, nine out of ten applications received over the past few weeks have been from people who are already on the electoral register.  This has led to an enormous increase in the workload of the elections staff who have to write to each one of these duplicate applicants to let them know they do not need to apply again.

“While we want to make sure that as many people as possible register to vote so they can have their say, we don’t want people who are already on the electoral register to apply again “ said Denise Holwill, the Council’s Electoral Services Manager.  “We know that some people have been confused by the information being sent out nationally and think they need to specifically register to vote in the EU Referendum.

 “This is not true – If you are a British, Irish or Commonwealth citizen and registered to vote in local government and/or parliamentary elections you will be able to vote in the Referendum.    If you received a polling card or a postal vote form for the Police and Crime Commissioner elections, then you are already on the electoral register and do not need to do anything else unless you have recently changed address.“

There are still around 14,000 people in Cornwall who have not returned their application forms, despite numerous reminders from the Council’s elections team.  Staff are writing to these people to give them once last chance to register to vote before the records are deleted in preparation for the summer canvass.

In the meantime the Council is supporting the Electoral Commission’s public awareness campaign to encourage people to register to vote.   As part of the campaign, which was officially launched across the country on Monday, 15 May, a voter information booklet will be delivered to all households during April and May. There will also be a series of adverts in the print and broadcast media to encourage people to vote.

If you have not yet registered to vote, then you can apply online at https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote. You can also use this website to check whether you are on the electoral register, update your name, address or other details or arrange to vote in person or by post.  The process usually takes about five minutes to complete.

For more information on the European Union Referendum, please go to aboutmyvote.co.uk.