THE way people register to vote across Britain changes from this month (June) with every new voter having to provide their national insurance number and date of birth in their application.
From 10 June if your details change you will need to register to vote individually – Individual Electoral Registration (IER) – with the information used to verify the applicant is who they say they are.
If you are unable to supply the information, there are alternative forms of official evidence which can be accepted.
This year the annual canvass process will be different. The council will be writing to every resident from the beginning of August to inform them of the action they need to take to ensure they are registered to vote – remember, a General Election as well as local elections are already scheduled for May 2015.
People who use – or who want to use – postal or proxy votes must register under the new IER system or they will lose the right to use their favoured method of absent voting.
The council – like authorities across the country – will contact the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to confirm the details on your application are correct. Further checks on council records may also be carried out.
Go online to www.gov.uk/register-to-vote to complete the online registration form or people can contact Electoral Services on 01375 652816 for an application form or to be talked through a telephone registration.
To find out more please go to www.electoralcommission.org.uk
I hope this puts an end to certain individuals who register themselves on the electoral roll in an area, sometimes hundreds of miles from where they really live, so they can stand for election. You end up with a Councillor who neither lives or works in that area.
It has been reported that the Police are investigating so called ‘bogus candidates’ in Tower Hamlets where council candidates have appeared on the electoral roll twice. Once in Tower Hamlets and at other addresses in London and in one case some 60 miles away. It appears to have been done to conceal the fact that some of the Tower Hamlet candidates do not live or work in the borough, as electoral rules require. The candidates are accused by opponents of using fake or accommodation addresses in Tower Hamlets while really living elsewhere in London or further away.
Making a false statement on a nomination paper is a criminal offence punishable by up to six months’ imprisonment.