Over one million applications achieved - but there's still time to register to vote before the General Election

9 Apr 2015 02:49 PM

Over one million (1,016,248) online applications to register to vote have been made atwww.gov.uk/registertovote in the past three and a half weeks.

The one million online applications have been made since the start of the Electoral Commission’s TV advertising campaign on 16 March. They also coincide with a huge range of registration activity that has been undertaken locally by Electoral Registration Officers and a range of public, private and voluntary sector organisations.

In addition there have been approximately 100,000 paper registration applications made since 16 March.

Data taken from the Government’s Digital Service shows that since 16 March:

• The day with the highest number of online applications so far was Monday 30 March with 85,172. That coincided with the start of the official General Election campaign period and the dissolution of Parliament. 
• There were 82,378 online applications made on Thursday 2 April, the same day as the second leaders’ debate. During the course of the debate, visitors to the online registration site peaked at 12,500 after viewers were given information on where to fill in a registration application.
• Monday is the most popular day of the week for people to apply to register to vote.
• Young people are the most likely to use the online service with almost 300,000 applications coming from 16 – 24 year olds; and over 350,000 from 25 – 34 year olds.

Alex Robertson, Director of Communication at the Electoral Commission, said:

“Over the past three weeks more and more people have been getting themselves registered by visiting gov.uk/register-to-vote, with people under 35 the most likely to use the service. It really is easy and only takes a few minutes.  

“We don’t want anyone to miss out, so we’re encouraging anyone still not registered to go online before the 20 April deadline.”

The over one million online applications to register to vote does not mean that there are that many new people added to the electoral registers. This is because some of the applications will be duplicate applications from people who are already included on the electoral registers.

Since last summer, the Electoral Commission has been working with a range of partner organisations to engage directly with traditionally under-registered groups. Recent activities include a partnership with NUS and other youth organisations to encourage students to #RegAFriend and a partnership with MoneySavingExpert.com to encourage homemovers to register to vote.

The deadline to register to vote is Monday 20 April. 

For further information contact:
Karim Aziz in the Electoral Commission press office on 020 7271 0704 orkaziz@electoralcommission.org.uk 
Out of office hours 07789 920 414

Notes to editors

1. The Electoral Commission is an independent body set up by the UK Parliament. Our aim is integrity and public confidence in the UK’s democratic process. We regulate party and election finance and set standards for well-run elections and are responsible for the conduct and regulation of referendum held under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act (2000).
2. To monitor the number of applications to register to vote, visithttps://www.gov.uk/performance/register-to-vote 
3. The figure 1,016,248 online applications was as at 7 April.
4. For more information about the Electoral Commission’s partnership working, click here.