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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

202 replies

Hurryhurryhurry · 08/06/2016 10:59

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?!

OP posts:
OnceThereWasThisGirlWho · 08/06/2016 14:04

Hmm, slightly on the fence but mainly YABU and the system should have accounted for this! Although they should have a "don't leave it to the last minute" focus in the ads (do they? I don't have TV...) The government have a "behavioural nudge unit" to encourage people to act in certain ways so I'm sure they could have come up with something to avoid this. (Did I just condone mind manipulation? Oops). In fact, I'm pretty sure if you keep saying to people "The deadline is X" and have a sort of countdown for this long, people are actually more inclined to put it off until the last minute. Because they think it's ages away. So may be deliberate?
Also Icebeing has a point about how many people actually would have to register on the last day - those moving house or turning 18. They'll be others who've been in hospital, bereaved, injured, whatever. 1 million people isn't actually that much compared to the whole population.

LurkingHusband · 08/06/2016 14:04

What is bizarre is that the new registration process is supposedly to combat fraud, but as long as voters are allowed to rock up at their polling station with or without a polling card and no requirement to produce ID, fraud will always be an issue.

Has that ever been a large-scale problem ?

I am much more worried about the indiscriminate issuing of postal votes into patrician communities where womens autonomy is not as established as the wider UK.

DrDreReturns · 08/06/2016 14:35

I agree with LurkingHusband. I used to work in a government IT department. The pay was poor by industry standards and the bureaucracy was awful. We needed a new server once and it took us half a year to get authorisation to buy it! I can well imagine a techie saying 'we will have problems if the hardware isn't upgraded' and being ignored or having to go through so many layers of bureaucracy they ran out of time. Hence their systems aren't robust and contractors don't want to work with them.
I work in the private sector now - none of those problems!

lljkk · 08/06/2016 14:38

Seems funny that DH & I have already voted (posted off days ago) & some folk haven't even registered.

HermioneJeanGranger · 08/06/2016 14:40

YABU. I registered two days ago because I was registered at my old address but had to move to due my relationship ending. Sorry if that makes me too disorganised to be allowed to vote, though Hmm

Purplepicnic · 08/06/2016 14:58

The deadline is set by law and so if they want to extend it, they will need change the law. Which means an Act of Parliament - not sure how fast they can get them through, there is a mechanism for emergency legislation.

mummytime · 08/06/2016 15:01

In my town the only vote in May was for a police commissioner. We also have a lot of students, who used to be block registered by their colleges.

And of course students are not well known for procrastinating.

SheHasAWildHeart · 08/06/2016 15:05

Smug boast - I've already sent off my postal vote.
But the website should have been prepared for a high volume of users.

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 08/06/2016 15:11

Purplepicnic
The Act of Parliament to nationalise Northern Rock was passed in 3 days from 1st reading to Royal Assent and that was quite complex legislation. So I imagine this problem could be sorted even more quickly

LurkingHusband · 08/06/2016 15:22

Deadline extended to Thursday midnight

MrsLupo · 08/06/2016 15:22

What is bizarre is that the new registration process is supposedly to combat fraud, but as long as voters are allowed to rock up at their polling station with or without a polling card and no requirement to produce ID, fraud will always be an issue.

Has that ever been a large-scale problem ?

How would we know?

I always find it extraordinary when I go to vote that the clerks just ask me who I am and believe me when I tell them. I'm often tempted to pose as my UKIP voting neighbour just so that they can't get a second ballot form when they turn up. Grin

I can't believe other countries do this, but have no direct experience of voting elsewhere so don't know. Anyone?

I dislike that in the UK we seem to have this low-tech, Wednesday-early-closing mentality when it comes to anything administrative, and then act like it's completely reasonable to assume electoral fraud is only ever perpetrated by people in hijabs and burqas. ("They all look the same, you know...") Fucksake.

specialsubject · 08/06/2016 15:26

Websites crash. Plan ahead. Its not hard really.

This happens every year with tax returns when people seem surprised at the arrival of jan 31. Buy a calendar.

LunaLoveg00d · 08/06/2016 15:43

Someone on the telly just said that part of the reason for the crash is that people who are registered, voted in the general election and haven't moved since are under the impression that they had to register again.

Those people are just too STUPID to vote.

lougle · 08/06/2016 16:00

Deadline has been extended until midnight on Thursday.

RedToothBrush · 08/06/2016 16:08

Has that ever been a large-scale problem ?

rotten boroughs were definitely a problem in the past.

I dislike that in the UK we seem to have this low-tech, Wednesday-early-closing mentality when it comes to anything administrative

Actually I think we do a lot more online than a lot of other places these days. That's actually the problem!

Those people are just too STUPID to vote.

I think the argument over the intelligence and education of voters has been a point of many debates during the course of the EU debate. It always comes back to the point that democratically there is no such barrier to voting for good reason whether we like it or not.

Iliveinalighthousewiththeghost · 08/06/2016 16:09

That's good. Like I said. It's not the people's fault nor Cameron's either (to be fair to him) that the site crashed.

MrsTerryPratchett · 08/06/2016 16:25

I had to register weeks ago, then apply for proxy, then my proxy applied for their postal votes. All done in time. Smugity smug. I'm overseas so it's unwieldy, hard work and slow.

However, I agree that it is Fascinating that people are so easily persuaded that other citizens don't deserve their vote. People died for this, were locked up, force fed and suffered lifelong disabilities. Should people really be denied a vote because they believed that the deadline was actually the deadline and not some unspecified time prior to the deadline?

Sleeprocks · 08/06/2016 16:29

Difficult for students as many will have left halls or their digs in the last week or so and might not have known where they are moving to. Not all can use parents' addresses.

LurkingHusband · 08/06/2016 16:35

Actually I think we do a lot more online than a lot of other places these days

When it suits them not us.

toomuchtooold · 08/06/2016 16:46

Good to hear they're extending the deadline. It doesn't matter why people didn't register up till now - if the clearly advertised closing date was last night, and people couldn't register last night, then the government has a responsibility to let those people get registered now.

Can't help thinking there must be a better way, though. I'm an overseas voter (left the UK in late 2014) and so I'm registered to vote in the London borough I last lived in. When I phoned up a few weeks ago to check they had my correct address, the first person I spoke to told me I didn't have a vote any more as I didn't live in the UK! When I kept insisting she huffily referred me to her manager who, of course, confirmed that I was entitled to vote... but imagine if someone less of a pain in the arse insistent than me had phoned up to register? Instant disenfranchisement!

MrsLupo · 08/06/2016 17:16

Shock toomuch That's awful! I don't know why I'm surprised really, but honestly...

Charlesroi · 08/06/2016 17:25

Great news that the deadline has been extended (I'm assuming an Act of Parliament is in the works).

This is the most important vote for several generations - no way should you be denied your say because some lashed-up-at-huge-expense website went down.
Tags - Government, website, piss-up, brewery, consultancy, off-shore

Allegedly.

LurkingHusband · 08/06/2016 17:27

lashed-up-at-huge-expense website

The expense going on the directors salaries, rather than infrastructure and staff wages though.

Sherlocked1606 · 08/06/2016 17:33

YANBU. Every year in Scotland each household is given their council tax letter. It reminds you to be Registered at your proper address. We then get a vote registration update form which we can respond to by text.

Both local and national elections are held at prescribed intervals and the date of the vote has been set for ages.

I don't understand why people choose not to register, choose not to vote. We had an election about a month ago. Surely you would already be registered. Obviously people who just turn 18 (although 16-17yold can vote in Scotland) or have moved.

This is a government ran website if course it's going to fail when we need it.Wink

SolomanDaisy · 08/06/2016 17:40

People living overseas don't stay registered to vote and have to re-register annually. Far more overseas residents want to register this time as the referendum affects them. Because they live abroad they may only have heard about the deadline at the last minute, after last minute campaigns by expat organisations.