Individual Electoral Registration

This White Paper and draft legislation sets out the next stage in the Coalition Programme for Government on improving the political system. Within the Coalition Programme was the ambition to "reduce electoral fraud by speeding up implementation of Individual Electoral Registration", and this Paper sets out detailed proposals to achieve that objective. At present the electoral register is compiled by household and relies on trusting that those who register to vote are eligible. Individual Electoral Registration requires each elector to register to vote individually, and for each elector to provide personal identifiers for verification. The White Paper sets out a plan to accelerate and implement Individual Electoral Registration in line with the Coalition Agreement by 2014 and before the next UK Parliamentary general election. The Government will also drop the previous Government's plans for a voluntary phase, but instead have a transition period, which means electors who do not register by 2014 will not lose their entitlement to vote in the 2015 General Election. New electors, postal and proxy voters will though need to register under the new system to be able to vote. Alongside this legislation a number of "Data Pilot Schemes" will be launched that will compare the local electoral registers against those of public databases for accuracy and identify unregistered electors eligible to vote. The legislation will also look at modernising the electoral registration in general, including: allowing Electoral Registration Officers to offer more choice in registering, including online; giving people greater control over verification of their eligibility; and once Parliament is satisfied, end the annual canvass of households as the primary means of maintaining the completeness and accuracy of the register.

The clauses and schedules in Part 1 of the Bill relating to Individual Electoral Registration will: provide that each elector must apply individually to be registered to vote after the transition to the new system; make transitional arrangements over two years, including using data matching to verify entries, and providing for the 'carry forward' of electors who are not automatically verified and fail to register under the new system in the first year, so that they remain on the first register published under the new system; create a legislative framework to allow alternative channels for registration to be offered; provide for the use of data matching to verify applications, check existing entries in registers and find individuals who do not currently appear on the register; make provision for an annual canvass which is compatible with the new registration system; ensure that all those wishing to vote by post or proxy will need to be registered under the new registration system to utilise these voting methods after the first annual canvass under the new system; introduce a civil penalty for those who fail to make an application when required to do so by an Electoral Registration Officer ("ERO"). The Bill also includes provisions in Part 2 in relation to the administration and conduct of elections intended to improve the way elections are run, increase voter participation, and further improve the integrity and robustness of the electoral system.

In this report the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee welcomes the Government's decision to move to a system of individual electoral registration in 2014-15, to replace the existing outdated system of registration by household. The Committee raises a number of concerns about the Government's implementation plan. Firstly, levels of registration will fall, by an uncertain amount at first, and if this fall is uneven across the country, it will have a marked and potentially partisan effect on the parliamentary constituency boundaries to be used at the 2020 general election. This risk is enhanced by the proposal to make voter registration voluntary. The Committee recommends that it should initially be an offence to fail to complete a voter registration form, as is currently the case in Northern Ireland. A second concern is that the electoral registers used for the 2015 general election, and initial invitations to register individually, will contain significant inaccuracies. This is because of the Government's decision not to remove voters registered in 2013 from the rolls until after that general, combined with the decision not to hold a full household canvass in 2014. Thirdly, vulnerable electors may be disenfranchised by the Government's decision to require postal and proxy voters to register individually before the 2015 general election. The Committee also recommends the abolition of the edited register. The report also comments on other electoral reforms the Government is proposing, including to the timetable for parliamentary elections, and largely endorses them.

This note gives a brief history of electoral registration and background to the issues surrounding individual registration.

Black & white print. American Government 3e aligns with the topics and objectives of many government courses. Faculty involved in the project have endeavored to make government workings, issues, debates, and impacts meaningful and memorable to students while maintaining the conceptual coverage and rigor inherent in the subject. With this objective in mind, the content of this textbook has been developed and arranged to provide a logical progression from the fundamental principles of institutional design at the founding, to avenues of political participation, to thorough coverage of the political structures that constitute American government. The book builds upon what students have already learned and emphasizes connections between topics as well as between theory and applications. The goal of each section is to enable students not just to recognize concepts, but to work with them in ways that will be useful in later courses, future careers, and as engaged citizens. In order to help students understand the ways that government, society, and individuals interconnect, the revision includes more examples and details regarding the lived experiences of diverse groups and communities within the United States. The authors and reviewers sought to strike a balance between confronting the negative and harmful elements of American government, history, and current events, while demonstrating progress in overcoming them. In doing so, the approach seeks to provide instructors with ample opportunities to open discussions, extend and update concepts, and drive deeper engagement.

Supporting document to the white paper Cm. 8108 (ISBN 9780101810821)