A report released this week has urged the Government to introduce a number of new methods to get people voting and registered to vote in the first place to avoid a ‘crisis of democratic engagement’. Our feature writer Suzanne Danon tells us more.
The Political and Constitutional Reform Committee has recommended that the Government considers online voting, holding elections at the weekend, and letting voters register to vote on Election Day, all in a bid to get more people voting.
The committee has also urged the Government to bring forward plans that target groups least likely to be registered to vote (including young people, British citizens living overseas and people with disabilities); consider making registration automatic, so people do not have to individually apply to register to vote; and, make sure more is done to register young people at schools, colleges and universities. Following the 2015 general election, the committee also wants to see research and national debates held on extending the vote to 16 and 17 year olds.
“Turnout for the last general election was only 65% - almost 16 million registered voters chose not to participate – and millions of people were not even registered to vote. This is not an acceptable state of affairs for a modern democracy,” said Graham Allen MP, chair of the committee.
“If we do not take urgent action to make elections more accessible to the public and convince them that it is worth voting we will be facing a crisis of democratic engagement.”
The report is based on the views of more than 16,000 people who responded to the committee’s consultation on voter engagement. Mr Allen said this highlighted the level of interest in making changes to improve voter engagement, and said it required a ‘serious response’ from the Government and political parties.
He added: “It is now for the political parties and next Parliament to take forward this work and re-engage the electorate, so that participation at future elections is much higher. Only by working together can we reenergise UK elections.”
What do you think of the report’s recommendations? Will this see more people registering to vote and in turn more voters at the ballot boxes?
