Harrogate Borough Council is currently issuing voter registration forms to approximately 70,000 households across the district in what will be the last electoral canvass of its kind.
After this year, the electoral registration system will be changed so that individuals will be required to register themselves, rather than someone doing it on behalf of the whole household. The changes being brought in by the government will also involve the matching of electoral registration records with those of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in the summer of 2014. Contact will be made with those individuals whose records don’t match. Any electors who match with DWP will be added automatically to the register which will be used for the General Election in 2015.
Peter Jordan, Harrogate council’s Head of Legal and Democratic Services said:
We’d ask all electors to give this matter their attention now so that they are safely on the register for both the European Parliamentary and District Election on 22 May 2014 and the expected UK Parliamentary Elections in May 2015.
Obviously, we’d far rather not be knocking on doors on mid-winter evenings chasing replies or getting in touch with people next year if this can be avoided, added Mr Jordan.
Every year, especially at UK Parliamentary Elections time we receive a number of calls from upset people who aren’t on the electoral register when it’s too late to help them. Please don’t let that be you.
