Reforming electoral registration
Five years since changes to the canvass, there are still challenges to address. These include picking up ongoing population movement and issues registering particular groups. This is particularly affecting attainers and other young people. We find this concerning considering the UK Government’s plans to extend the franchise to 16 and 17 year-olds for reserved elections.
Improving electoral registration will:
- ensure all eligible voters can have their say at elections
- help reduce some of the challenges EROs continue to face. These include processing large numbers of registrations before major electoral events.
- improve the accuracy and completeness of the registers
To improve these issues the UK Government must now commit to:
- developing a more modern, data-driven system
- joining up public services. This could make registering to vote simpler for voters and more efficient for EROs.
Improving voter registration through modern registration processes
The UK needs new approaches to ensure everyone is able to register easily and participate in our democracy. These include forms of assisted, integrated, direct or automatic registration. These approaches are already used successfully by other countries.
We are confident the UK Government could deliver these without making huge changes to the current system of electoral registration.
A government department or public sector organisation would provide the names and addresses of people who are eligible to vote.
The ERO would contact eligible voters to inform them they will add them to the register. Voters will have the opportunity to:
- correct any mistakes
- state they are not eligible to register
- request to register to vote anonymously.
Others living at the address can also provide evidence that someone is not in fact eligible to be registered at that address.
People could register whilst completing within another public service transaction. For example, applying for a driving licence or updating address details.
At the end of those transactions, people would be asked whether they also want to register to vote.
If they want to register to vote, relevant data would be transferred to an electoral registration application. Once completed, the relevant ERO receives the application for processing.
An organisation would provide EROs with the names and addresses of people who may be eligible to vote.
The ERO would then write to those individuals inviting them to register. The invitation would:
- ask them to provide any missing information needed to complete their registration. This could include their nationality or their National Insurance number
- give them the opportunity to register as an anonymous elector.
Assisted registration could improve registration rates among attainers and other young people. Data from the education sector could help EROs identify and target these groups.
EROs could also use HMRC data to invite young people to register when they get their National Insurance number ahead of their 16th birthday.
An individual would receive information about registering to vote when communicating with an organisation or public body or during a transaction.
This could include a prompt at the end of a transaction or directing them to the UK Government’s Register to Vote website. They would then complete the usual steps to apply to register.
Three steps to improving the electoral registration system
The UK Government must now take three key steps to build the necessary data, technical and legislative infrastructure.
These are:
- Securing engagement and support from other organisations
- Further developing existing technical infrastructure
- Give clear legislation so EROs can provide direct or integrated registration
Securing engagement and support from other organisations
EROs need access to reliable and trusted information from other public sources. This will help them ensure the electoral registers are accurate and complete. It will also support direct, assisted and integrated registration.
The most appropriate data source organisations will be those that already collect some or all of the information needed to register to vote. EROs should only have access to recent transactional data to ensure that any information used for electoral registration is up to date.
A good example of a high-volume and high-quality is the HM Passport Office (HMPO). When someone applies for a passport, they must provide:
- their name
- date of birth
- evidence of British citizenship
- home address for delivery of the passport.
HMPO also carry out rigorous identity checks on passport applications.
EROs could use this data to register people to vote.
In 2023 HMPO told us that they expect to receive around 7.4 million passport applications in the next year. These applications cover all age groups. This includes applications from young people applying for adult passports, and people who have recently moved home.
Passport data is already shared with around 80 government departments and public sector bodies. They carry out around 25 million identity checks each year.
Other examples of transactional data sources that are likely to be both high-volume and high-quality include:
- Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency
- HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
- Department for Work and Pensions
- Department for Education
- Education and Skills Funding Agency.
Further developing existing technical infrastructure
The Individual Electoral Registration Digital Service (IERDS) has allowed voters to update their details seamlessly. Through EROs’ Electoral Management Software (EMS) systems, it verifies registration applications against Department for Work and Pensions data.
There is scope to expand this service to further enhance accessibility and efficiency. This includes developing a new Application Programming Interface (API) to support data sharing between data source organisations and the EMS systems.
This is one of the steps that could pave the way for integrated, assisted, and automated or direct registration.
The GOV.UK One Login service could also include electoral registration as part of this wider modernisation. The UK Government already has plans to expand this service.
Give clear legislation so EROs can provide direct or integrated registration
Implementing automatic or direct registration requires legislative change. EROs need clear powers and processes so they can use information from other organisations for applications.
The UK Government should take learnings from the pilots in Wales held under the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Act 2024. These pilots will test different approaches to registering voters without requiring formal applications.
The UK Government may also wish to pilot new approaches to registration before deciding on whether to roll them out more widely. The Electoral Commission should evaluate any pilots.
Without clear legislation, there are limited changes the UK Government can make to the existing system. This will delay real improvements until after the next UK Parliamentary general election.