Picture this. You are 19 years old and you manage to get down to the polling station on election day. Maybe you finally make up your mind about who to vote for as you walk in the door. But before you get that far, you're stopped. "Sorry Miss, you're not on the electoral register. I'm afraid you won't be able to vote today."
This kind of humiliation is already felt by many in this country. Returning officers in Southampton, where I live, have told me horror stories about tension rising when a number of young people were turned away in 2010 simply because they hadn't registered. The sad fact is that just 56% of 19-24 year-olds are on the electoral register and eligible to vote, as opposed to 94% of those aged over 65. Similar discrepancies are found if you compare home owners with renters, or black and minority ethnic groups with white residents. These people don't even show up on turnout figures. They are not just voiceless, they are invisible.
This crisis is about to get even worse under the government's new proposals for individual voter registration. In the past, one member of a household could sign up everyone living at the property on to the electoral register. From June, every person will have to sign up individually or they can expect to be turned away at the ballot box.
Labour candidates have been shouting from the rooftops about this problem for some time. Now Sadiq Khan, the shadow justice secretary, has come out in favour of allowing electoral registration on voting day, a system that has raised turnout in the US. It means that if someone turns up to the voting booth and realises they are not on the list, they can simply sign up on the day and still place their vote.
It's one of a number of measures proposed by Labour. John Spellar, the MP for Warley, has been encouraging councils to let residents opt in to the electoral role when they are in contact with public and government services, such as when making council tax payments, buying parking permits or applying for a passport. It is telling that these measures are being picked up fastest in councils under Labour control.
The government says that individual voter registration is needed to prevent fraud, and I expect it would reject Labour's proposed solutions on the same grounds. The problem is that there is no evidence to support its position. According to the Electoral Commission, there have been less than 10 proven cases of electoral registration fraud in the past four years, and it's not clear how this new system – which allows you to register online without a paper trail or signature to check – can solve this problem. Even if by some weird twist the government proposals did reduce fraud, the cost in terms of potentially thousands of people dropping off the register and being turned away at the polls doesn't seem worth it. Why should the wrongs of a few mean that the many are punished?
So we must ask what the real motive behind these registration changes is. Sadly, I fear it is in the Conservative party's interest to suppress the number of citizens who are able to vote. This is a party that opposed universal suffrage and caused a massive decline in the number of people on the electoral roll through Margaret Thatcher's plans for a poll tax, which resulted in many people dropping off the list for fear of having to pay. The party knows that the groups vulnerable to the change – renters, BME groups, young people – are unlikely to vote for it. The groups left voting will be the relatively powerful in society, and so our politics will become more likely to serve them and their interests, cutting the less fortunate out of the conversation.
Of course, all the technical solutions in the world will not fix the problems of declining voter turnout. There are huge issues that politicians and parties of both sides have to address to restore public trust and inspire people to want to register in the first place. But the government's proposed changes will make things worse. If individuals are being turned away from polling stations for reasons they cannot understand they will lose faith in democracy, and our political system is impoverished by becoming smaller. We cannot allow this to happen.
However you choose to vote, give yourself the choice. Register here and spread the word.
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