Students urged to register to vote by Ashfield MP
Students in Ashfield are being urged to make sure they are on the electoral register before changes to the registration system are brought in.
The Individual Electoral Registration (IER) will be implemented from December 1 and means that each individual in a household will have to register themselves to vote.
Under the previous system, one person could register everyone in their household. Young people are particularly at risk of not being registered.
Gloria De Piero MP - who is also Shadow Minister for Voter Registration - visited Quarrydale Academy last week to remind older students to register.
“Anyone can register to vote from 16 years old and onwards. Even if you don’t like politicians, the most important thing to do is vote,” she said.
Not being on the electoral register means you won’t be able to elect your MP, your local councillors and will be unable to vote in the European referendum.
Under these new proposals not being on the electoral register could even see you fined £80 and you might find it harder to get a credit card, mobile phone contract and a passport.
With just weeks to go before the changes come in, Gloria is determined that everyone who wants to vote can still vote by highlighting the quick and easy steps to register - which take just three minutes to complete - by going to www.gov.uk/register-to-vote.