Electoral Commission calls for action on duplicate registration applications

Urgent action is needed to reduce both the scale and the administrative impact of duplicate registration applications ahead of future polls, the Electoral Commission has said.

In a report on the recent general election, the watchdog said it wanted to work with the UK’s governments “to incorporate more automatic checks into the online application service to highlight if someone has already submitted an application”.

The Electoral Commission revealed that more than 2.9m applications to register to vote were made across the UK between the announcement of the election on 18 April and the deadline for applications on 22 May, including 612,000 on 22 May itself.

Electoral Registration Officers said that numbers of duplicate applications – from people already on the electoral register – were high, with estimates ranging from 30% to 70%.

The Electoral Commission said June’s general election had the largest ever electorate for a UK-wide poll, with an estimated 46.8m people registered to vote. This was approximately 500,000 more electors than the 2015 general election.

The watchdog also recommended that:

• Electoral registration should be more joined-up with other public services, to make registering to vote even simpler for the public and more efficient for EROs. This should include integrating applications into other public service transactions and better use of national data to identify new electors or home movers.
• Online electoral registration should be extended to Northern Ireland as soon as possible.
• Automatic registration methods should be explored further, drawing on insights from other comparable countries.

Sir John Holmes, Chair of the Electoral Commission, said: “The size of the registered electorate for the general election demonstrates the UK’s strong tradition of democratic engagement, and reflects the hard work of all concerned.

“However, if we are to keep pace with modern habits and practice in a digital world, the electoral registration system must continue to evolve, and consider innovative solutions such as direct or automatic enrolment processes. These have the potential to deliver significant improvements to the accuracy and completeness of electoral registers as well as efficiencies for local authorities and the public purse.”

The Electoral Commission’s report can be viewed here.