To think it's your own fault and you've had ages to sort it!

[Hurryhurryhurry]

Heard the news on the radio about up to 1 million people registering to vote yesterday... On the last day!
Then the site crashed and now many people are annoyed that they couldn't register and want the deadline to be extended.

Wtf! Aibu to think why did you leave it until yesterday?!

[FeliciaJollygoodfellow]

YANBU. At all.

[IceRoadDucker]

YABU. Any idiot could have anticipated this and should have made sure the site could cope with the traffic. You can't give a deadline and then say, "Well you should have done it well before the deadline!"

[TortoiseSmile]

Another ruse by the Leave campaign

[Hurryhurryhurry]

Completely get the whole if there's a deadline then you should be able to get in before the deadline. But like most things, leave it to the last minite and there is a hogher chance of not succeeding

[Hurryhurryhurry]

Higher

[lougle]

Most people would have been automatically eligible to vote though,wouldn't they?

[MariaSklodowska]

a deadline is a deadline, OP, don't be so smug.

[lougle]

I went online to register and it said that if you voted in the general election and still lived at the same address, you can vote automatically.

[Mycatsabastard]

I wonder how many of these people who are desperate to vote in the referendum can't be bothered to vote any other time and then spend a lot of time moaning about the government

It's not difficult to do. We moved last year, I went online two months ago and changed my details in about 2 minutes. Job done. Don't moan if you don't vote and don't moan if you can't vote because you left it until the last day to actually register.

[Indecisive1976]

I'm not sure about the tech details, but is it even possible to have a website that can cope with 50,000 people hitting it at the same time?

[LurkingHusband]

Some techie discussion here ...

www.theregister.co.uk/2016/06/08/cabinet_office_eu_vote_registration_fail/

[Hurryhurryhurry]

I'm not being smug maria. As lougle says, I'm automatically registered as I could be bothered to vote last month and in the general election.

Unless your 18th birthday was yesterday, then there was no actual need to leave it until the last minute.

[LaBelleOtero]

We just got polling cards sent through the post, as with the usual elections.

I'm staggered so many people aren't registered to vote!

[MariaSklodowska]

" I'm not being smug maria."

you might not realise it, but you sound incredibly so.

" there was no actual need to leave it until the last minute."

if you think that doesn't sound smug, you are deluded.

[C2H5OH]

I'm very worried about the recent changes to voter registration. It used to be much easier, but to avoid fraud it's been made a bit tougher. More and more young renters have to move more often, so they drop of the register automatically. Cynical folk say it's in the Tories' interest to reduce the number of young voters as they are less like to vote for them.

But there has been a huge amount of publicity about this. I think the people leaving it to the last minute because it was 'difficult' i.e. you needed your NI number need a bit of a reality check. I'm so old I never had an NI card and I've never had a problem locating my NI number, even when I had to move regularly.

People who can manage to register in advance to book tickets for Glastonbury are capable of getting their act together to register for their right to vote in time. Young People These Days .

I'm sorry the website crashed, but half a million is a fuck of a lot in one day.

[paxillin]

I understand the exasperation at the last-minuters. Still, YABU.

Deadline was midnight, it should be available until midnight. Same goes for polling day. Arriving 9:57 should be fine if the deadline is 10.

[Mirandawest]

I think some people believed that you had to register specially for the referendum. So some people attempting to register would already have been registered. I have seen a person who had been sent a polling card but thought she couldn't vote as she hadn't registered for the referendum.

[AristotleTheGreat]

Yes I do wonder why on earth there has been so mnay people wantig to register all at the same time.
It doesn't even seem possible. I mean is there really more than 50.000 people that normally do not vote and they arent registered that suddenly decide, just on the last day, that they want to vote?

have we ever seen anything like this in any previous election?

Nope.

There is another strategy at play behind that.

[LurkingHusband]

I'm staggered so many people aren't registered to vote!

It's partly due to the recent change in the system which makes the voter responsible for registering, rather than the "head of household" (if ever there was a literally patronising phrase it was that).

So a lot of people who have never been involved in registering (guess what - the young and women) will have been unaware of the need to register.

Whilst the previous system was outdated and insulting, it did deliver more registered voters.

If you want to think too- deeply about it, we might be entering a vicious spiral of deprivation. If you're not registered to vote, your credit history will be poor. So you will have less access to loans - particularly mortgages thus perpetuating the rise of an underclass.

I don't know what the answer is. What I do know is that a small gathering of regular Mumsnetters could probably have devised a better, fairer and more efficient system. Only they weren't being paid the exorbitant salaries, nor wear the right school-tie you need to make decisions in public life.

Or is that too cynical ?

[Charlesroi]

I understand but YABU, sorry.

If you have a massive publicity campaign, you can't be surprised when loads of people hit your website on the last day. It would be reasonable to expect a more robust website.
I think the deadline should be extended

[C2H5OH]

There were around 7million people not registered to vote at the start of the week!

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

I tried to apply for tickets to see the gymnastics, at the Commonwealth Games - but I left it to the last moment, and couldn't get onto the site.

Did I whinge? No. I accepted that it was my own damn silly fault.

And there hadn't been adverts on the TV, reminding me that the deadline for ticket applications was fast approaching either. Nor were there mailshots from the Government reminding me.

[LurkingHusband]

but is it even possible to have a website that can cope with 50,000 people hitting it at the same time?

as a techie, I always answer "yes". Then I look for flaws. (Not really done in the UK, where you start with "no" and carry on ..)

It's entirely possible. You'd need some money and considered planning (are you starting to see what went wrong here ?). How many people are on Facebook at any one time ? Out of the billions of registered users.

Or Amazon ?

Or Google ?

Or eBay ?