Facebook and the Electoral Commission have teamed up to remind voters across the UK to register to vote in the forthcoming elections taking place on Thursday 5 May 2016.
A reminder will be added to the news feed of people eligible to register to vote on Facebook on Tuesday 12th April, less than one week ahead of the deadline, directing them to register via the gov.uk portal.
To take part in the elections in May, voters must be registered by the deadline of Monday 18 April. Registering now for the elections in May will also mean voters are registered in good time before the referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union on 23 June.
Facts and figures

  • Around 658,800 people have so far submitted an online application to register to vote since the Commission launched its main campaign on 14 March.
  • Approximately 234,880 applications have come from 16 – 24 year olds.
  • The day with the biggest number of applications to register so far has been 4 April, with 48,900.
  • Research the Commission conducted last year shows that 1 in 4 people across the UK wrongly believe that voters can register up until the day of the election.
  • Ahead of the registration deadline for the 2015 General Election, over 1 million applications to register were made in the final week.
  • Over 15 million people saw a similar voter registration reminder on Facebook ahead of the 2015 General Election registration deadline
  • A recent survey by the Commission showed that around 20% of respondents didn’t know that they needed to be registered to vote to take part in the elections in May.

Alex Robertson, Director of Communications at the Electoral Commission said:
“Nearly 23,000 people applied to register to vote the day after the registration deadline for the UK General Election. We don’t want anyone to miss out this time and it just takes a few minutes to register online at www.gov.uk/registertovote”.
“Working with Facebook is an amazing opportunity for a huge number of people to see this really important message before the deadline on18 April.
Theo Lomas, Facebook’s Politics & Government Specialist for the Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) region said:
“Over 35 million people in the UK use Facebook, considerably more than the number of people who voted in the last General Election. We’re seeing that millions of them are already turning to Facebook to share their views on the forthcoming elections as well as the broader European referendum debate.
However, participating in the discussion online isn’t enough to get your opinion counted. If you’re not registered, you can’t vote. It’s that simple. We hope through partnerships like this one with the Electoral Commission, we can make sure more people will know how to cast their ballot and have their say.”
The elections
On Thursday 5 May, voters will go to the polls to vote at elections in every part of the UK. There are elections to the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly, as well as local government elections in England and Police and Crime Commissioner Elections in England and Wales, London Mayoral and Assembly elections.
A study published by the Commission in 2014 found that at least 7.5 million people in Great Britain were not registered correctly.
The same research identified the following groups who are less likely to be registered:

  • Recent home movers. 93.9% of people who have been at their property for more than sixteen years are registered compared to 40.1% of people who have been at their current address for less than a year.
  • Young people. 76% of 18-19 year olds and 70% of 20-24 year olds were registered to vote. This compared to 95% of those aged 65 plus.
  • People in rented accommodation. 63.3% of those renting from a private landlord were registered to vote in 2014, compared to 93.6% of people who own their home outright and 89.3% who own their home with a mortgage

Electoral Registration Officers have been working locally to encourage people to register to vote, and the Electoral Commission has carried out a range of activities including:

  • A public awareness campaign supported by a range of partners, including the National Union of Students (NUS), Mencap and Shelter, which includes advertising across TV, radio and online.
  • A partnership with Channel 4 and the producers of Hollyoaks on a TV advertising campaign aimed at under-registered groups.
  • A social media campaign (#RegAFriend) with the NUS asking young people across the UK to encourage their friends to register.
  • A range of activities as part of the National Voter Registration Drive in February, including holding an event at the Senedd in partnership with the National Assembly for Wales, NUS, NUS Cymru, Youth Cymru and Bite the Ballot.

The deadline to register to vote is Monday 18 April.