Toby James presenting the report to an All Party Parliamentary Group on 8th March 2016.

The number of people on the UK electoral register has been in long-term decline.  It was estimated that up to 7.5 million people were not registered in 2014.

At the end of the transition to individual electoral registration, there are another 1.4 million fewer names on the register. Dramatically, the number of attainers, our next generation of voters, fell by 40%.

Last week, Bite the Ballot and I presented a draft report to the All-Party Parliamentary Party on Democratic Participation.  This provided a 24 point action plan for how levels of electoral registration could be improved.

The report also included some headlines from a survey of electoral officials that I have undertaken.  Half of electoral administrators said that they had thought about leaving their job at some point in the last year. Why does this matter? Because running elections is difficult and we will only see more problems without experienced, dedicated and motivated staff who aren’t stretched beyond capacity.

You can read more about the report in this PSA blog.

And download the report here:

• Draft ‘Missing Millions’ report by Dr. Toby James, Bite The Ballot, March 2016