electoral roll register

BartGirl

I keep getting these letters through to sign up on the register in my local authority borough.
The letters say that you can be prosecuted if you dont register.
Is that true?

CLAPTON

yes although I can't ever recall ever hearing of someone being prosecuted

rog2

NOT being on the electoral register COULD cause problems if ever you need credit, although, I have to say, sometimes being ON the electoral register can cause problems - junk mail being just one such problem.
Saying that, though, it IS an offence not to register, although, fortunately, it is NOT an offence not to vote.

LuciferTDark

rog2 wrote: »

although, fortunately, it is NOT an offence not to vote.

Not yet it isn't anyway, could change any time though.

rog2

LuciferTDark wrote: »

Not yet it isn't anyway, could change any time though.

I'm surprised it hasn't already. :rolleyes:

barbarawright

CLAPTON wrote: »

yes although I can't ever recall ever hearing of someone being prosecuted

There's a maximum fine of £1000 for not registering or giving false infomation. I don't think there have been any prosecutions yet but I'm fairly sure there will be in the next year or so. Certainly the council I work for is losing patience with people who refuse to register as the legal required process of checking up on people by visiting their house and writing to them is very expensive.

rog2

barbarawright wrote: »

There's a maximum fine of £1000 for not registering or giving false infomation. I don't think there have been any prosecutions yet but I'm fairly sure there will be in the next year or so. Certainly the council I work for is losing patience with people who refuse to register as the legal required process of checking up on people by visiting their house and writing to them is very expensive.

I don't think that it should be a legal requirement to register on the electoral register. The ER has become, like so many other things, a 'marketable commodity' where personal details are available to anyone who wishes to 'pay' for them.
If it were no longer a 'legal requirement' your council would save money.
I, too, am surprised that there have been no prosecutions, albeit not for the same reasons as you, as this society seems to enjoy processes that 'criminalise' people for not understanding their legal requirements.

BartGirl

thanks everyone

barbarawright

Well, whether registration should be compulsory is maybe an argument for another thread. As it is, councils are required to go through various procedures in order to ensure that people don't lose their right to vote - and of course it's right that people should be given a second chance if someone happened to have mislaid the forms or maybe threw them away because they thought they were junk mail. But councils don't have any choice about following up people who haven't registered - they have to pay people to visit households where people haven't signed up. And obviously this costs money (and is then reflected in the council tax)

And nobody has to appear on the public electoral register. Access to the full version is limited, more or less, to the police and credit checkers and it's illegal for them to pass on the information. If you don't want to get junk mail as a result of registering, tick the box so you don't appear on the edited register.

rog2

barbarawright wrote: »

And nobody has to appear on the public electoral register. Access to the full version is limited, more or less, to the police and credit checkers and it's illegal for them to pass on the information. If you don't want to get junk mail as a result of registering, tick the box so you don't appear on the edited register.

You hit the nail on the head, there, barbara - it is the fact that 'credit checkers' include the likes of some of the most deviant debt-collection companies that trawl these records and often 'mis-use' the information that is wrong. Whilst it may be illegal to pass the information on, these organisations operate with scant regard to the law at any time, and simply 'ticking the box' can have little or no effect.
In a truly democratic society it should be up to the individual as to whether he/she wishes to be on the electoral register. The percentage of eligible voters, who actually turn out to vote at elections, would suggest that many people don't particularily wish to be included on the electoral register.