12 December election date could disenfranchise thousands of students

Janet Downs's picture
 3

Thousands of university students could be disenfranchised if an election is called for 12 December unless they take steps to avoid it.

That’s because many universities will have closed for Christmas.  York, Cambridge and Oxford, for example, close on 6 or 7 December.   Others, such as Birmingham and Manchester Metropolitan, close on the 13th.  And some, such as Sheffield, go on until the 21st.

A student registered to vote only in the ward nearest their university could be back home on election day.  Conversely, those registered to vote only at their home address could be still at university.

What, then, is a student to do? 

The answer is to register in both places: university and home.   Details are here.  Students need to be citizen of Britain, the Commonwealth, Irish Republic or a European Union member state although the latter can't vote in UK general elections (thanks to agov for this info*).  And it would be unwise to leave it until the last minute.

 *UPDATE 28 October 2019:  The article has been amended.  The earlier article implied EU citizens could vote in UK general elections.  They can't.  They can only vote in local or EU elections.  The register to vote page doesn't make this clear. 

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Comments

agov's picture
Sat, 26/10/2019 - 07:51

There is surely no need for concern? Cheating students are well accustomed to rush around the country to cast a vote at both home and college address. They will simply have to take a day trip to the college area to vote for free stuff in both locations rather vice versa.


agov's picture
Sun, 27/10/2019 - 09:17

And as I would have said yesterday had I not been in a hurry, nationals of EU countries are not eligible to vote in British general elections -

https://www.gov.uk/elections-in-the-uk

At least not legally. Naturally we can take it for granted that in areas run by the farce pretending to be the Labour Party there will be lots of 'inadvertent' administrative 'errors' - to go alongside the mysterious lump of the 'Labour' postal vote that gets conjured up at election times, to be added in with the votes of the cheating students.


Janet Downs's picture
Mon, 28/10/2019 - 08:44

Thank you for letting me know EU citizens resident in the UK can't vote in UK general elections.  The source I used, Bristol LA, didn't make that clear.  I will amend the article.


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