Labour to bring in automatic voter registration under plans to boost franchise

Labour is planning to introduce automatic registration for voting under plans to add millions more people to the electoral roll for future elections, especially young people, the Guardian has learned.

Automatic voter registration (AVR), which exists in several European countries, would come on top of planned reforms already announced by Keir Starmer’s party such as extending the vote to 16- and 17-year-olds. Together, they could significantly shake up the voting franchise if Labour gets into power next week.

Currently, people in the UK need to register if they are to vote. Under automatic registration, the electoral roll is compiled from other records, for example those linked to tax or passport data, with people added by default.

An estimated 7 to 8 million people are missing or incorrectly recorded on current registers, many of them young, as well as a disproportionate number who are poorer or who live in privately rented homes.

Younger people tend to be more likely to support Labour, raising the possibility that automatic registration would boost the party.

Labour’s manifesto says it will “improve voter registration”, with the party refusing to elaborate further. But electoral officials told the Guardian the reference was a commitment to work towards automatic registration across the UK. A Labour source denied that the party had committed to going ahead with the idea.

The devolved Labour government in Wales has already committed to trialling the change there to work out the best way for it to operate. When the plan was proposed, the Welsh Conservatives opposed it, saying automatic registration could cause “confusion” and people should be able to register themselves without any problems.

This is, however, not the case for some groups, particularly people who move frequently, such as students. A survey by the charity Mencap found that 60% of people with learning disabilities found registering to vote too difficult.

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Electoral Commission data shows that while 96% of people aged 65 or over are registered to vote, this falls to 60% for those aged 18 and 19, and 67% for people aged 20 to 24. Similarly, 95% of homeowners are registered against 65% of private renters.

Other statistics have shown that in the worst-affected constituencies, mainly ones with younger and more transient populations including in London, Sheffield and Bristol, about 20% of eligible voters are unregistered.

The Electoral Reform Society, which campaigns to make voting easier, said it would welcome the plan. Dr Jess Garland, its head of research and policy, called it “a win-win for voters as it would take one more thing off their to-do list, while at the same time strengthening our democracy by helping to enfranchise millions of missing voters”.

She said: “Participation is a vital sign of the health of our democracy, so it is crucial that as many people as possible are able to vote. AVR, which is already used widely around the world and due to come in for Wales, would help reinvigorate our democracy and improve participation for future elections.

“The introduction of measures such as voter ID in recent years mean people now face more barriers to casting their vote than at previous elections. It is crucial that we reverse this trend by expanding access to voting and making it easier for people to exercise their basic democratic right.”

The Welsh plan, which is set out in a bill still going through the Senedd, pledges to pilot “the most appropriate means” to achieve AVR.

An Electoral Commission report last year into how it could happen UK-wide suggested input from data systems including the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, HM Passport Office and HM Revenue and Customs, with help from the Information Commissioner’s Office on how to safely share such data.

Under a system in Sweden, anyone who appears on a population register compiled by tax authorities is automatically registered and sent a polling card 30 days before election day, with about 96% of eligible voters registered.

The mention in Labour’s manifesto comes in a wider section on constitutional reform, which promises to reduce the voter age to 16 and address “inconsistencies” in the way mandatory ID rules for voting currently work.

Robert Ford, a professor of political science at Manchester University, said the potential electoral impact of the proposed change was uncertain. “It depends on how many of these people vote, and given they have not registered before, the baseline assumption about their engagement levels would be a fairly low one.”

Additionally, Ford said, many seats with low levels of registration tended to be Labour strongholds anyway, while many students who were not registered where they were studying were registered elsewhere.

But he added: “Regardless of the political or logistical implications, this is the right thing to do. We should be making it as easy as possible to vote. The current system we have was never introduced for any particular legal reason, it was just administratively convenient. Most countries have much better and more modern ways of registering voters. Ours is deeply antiquated.”

What Labour is – and isn’t – promising on voting reform

Voting at 16 and 17

This already happens in Scottish and Welsh devolved elections, and the manifesto promises to make the change UK-wide for all elections.

Voter ID

While Labour opposed the introduction of mandatory photo ID for voting, it does not propose to abolish this. Instead, the manifesto promises to “address the inconsistencies in voter ID rules”. While the only specific example cited is allowing armed forces veterans’ cards to be used to vote, it is possible Labour could add to the list other documents that are used by students and young people.

Proportional representation

This is very popular with Labour members, and after a series of trade unions that had previously opposed the idea changed their stance, Labour’s 2022 conference overwhelmingly backed a motion calling on the party to embrace a proportional electoral system. However, this has no force on the leadership, and while Keir Starmer previously has been advocate of proportional representation, there is no mention of it in the manifesto.