In this hi-tech electoral age most political pundits have ignored the process of voter registration. Yet those who understand and care about electoral democracy have been warning for some that time that the introduction of IER has been rushed and ill-considered (and in particular its potential impact on the traditionally high levels of student registration occasioned by the ability of universities to register all students collectively). Sadly the Electoral Commission – the national guardian of our electoral process – has ignored such warnings.

In the last few weeks we have gone from warnings to stark evidence and especially in those localities characterised by private rental and student households. One polling district in central Manchester has witnessed a 98 per cent fall in the level of registration compared to the same period in 2013. Overall electoral registration officers in our major cities are reporting registration levels of 10 per cent and less for student halls of residence. When you consider that there are upwards of one million students living away from home the implications are frightening.

We are now going to rely on cash-strapped local councils to rectify this situation. Some will respond well out of a sense of civic responsibility and others will be helped by one-off cash injections from the Cabinet Office. But the reality is that we are about to embark on a massive paper trail among a section of the community largely immune to communications from officialdom. First and second reminders to register will be piled up in student pigeon-holes and the hallways of private rented households gathering dust with the pizza and free newspapers.

The lack of due diligence by the Electoral Commission prior to the introduction of IER is truly astonishing. We welcome 500,000 Commonwealth students to the United Kingdom and have included them in the democratic process. However the requirement to supply a National Insurance Number to gain access to the electoral register means that many are now excluded as their student visas prohibit them from obtaining a NI number!

Thanks to some last-minute lobbying by experienced politicians the fall in the register will be protected until after the general election as electors who were previously on the register and failed to respond to this year’s registration process will be ‘carried over’ for another year. However this group (upwards of two million) will be swept off the register as early as October 2015 with massive implications for the pending boundary review of parliamentary constituencies and local council wards as well as a huge impact on the composition of juries.

There were alternatives to this. Australia has managed the process of IER successfully for many years. The Electoral Commission never even approached the relevant authorities there for advice.

On the principle of ‘if you are in a hole it is best to keep digging’ the Electoral Commission have now moved on to consider the introduction of voter identification for the next general election – i.e. the need to produce photo identification in polling stations prior to voting. The United States supreme court has just ruled a similar scheme by the Texan Republican party inadmissible. Is this the company that our Electoral Commission really want to be keeping?

Last month everyone was quite rightly celebrating the 97 per cent level of electoral registration achieved in Scotland prior to the referendum. The sad truth is that the current practice of the Electoral Commission means we will never see such levels of democratic engagement again.

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Paul Wheeler writes on local politics

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Photo: Matt Brown