I know, I know. There's always one, but did I have to register seperately to vote today

[SatansLittleHelper2]

I keep seeing posts about registering to vote, I didnt bother as already registered or so I.thought. Im not so sure now.

I haven't received a polling card but I have been getting various bumf re: brexit / remain for a few months now. It's all been addressed to me personally and I did vote in the last elections so I'm assuming I will still be on the voters roll. Will update later if I am unable to vote.

We get reminders but I never bother sending the.thing off as i've never had a problem voting. Ah well, hopefully I won't return redfaced

I did a job last year, trying to get people to register because the system has changed and people needed to register individually, with their national insurance numbers.

I was staggered at the number of people who wouldn't even take the form off me!

You may have dropped off the register at that point if your details didn't match both databases they were using and you didn't do anything about it.

Nothing wrong with registering twice though, if only they'd given us more notice about the referendum.

Socksey, not true- I'm Canadian and I voted today!

I registered online when they had all the adverts a while back, only to be told I was already on the list. I just didn't want to risk it!
I don't think it's right to take people off just because they are updating the system, voting should be a right, whether or not you use it.

*automatic right

Socksey - British and Commonwealth citizens can vote today. Of European countries citizens of Ireland, Malta and Cyprus can vote.

A friend of mine couldn't vote today. She's gutted. I'm sure I haven't done anything special that she hasn't done. She voted at the last general and got the card for the police commisioner one.

So it would appear that in the last year or so, some people have fallen off the electoral register without their knowledge and without moving house?

I'm wondering if not receiving polling cards is a bit of a widespread problem.

We didn't and that's never happened before, ever, and we've been at this address for 12 years.

I always return the electoral form and we voted at the local elections.

I did ring my local electoral office at the council to find out why I hadn't received a polling card and they blamed Royal Mail and said I'd have to take it up with them.

I did vote today so our polling cards went astray.

Take it you missed all of the controversies around the new registration system then. Registration changed last year: each individual now has to register themselves. Cynics (such as me) have been dismayed by the number of people who have been disenfranchised by this change, more dismayed yet that it particularly affects the young and tenants (most likely to vote against the government), and aghast that constituency boundaries are going to be redrawn according to this data rather than demographic data. Admittedly the old system was out of date.

There are some details about the changes here www.electoral-reform.org.uk/voter-registration and you can start the process of registration at www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

Please do get it done for the next elections. How we can claim to be any kind of democracy when there's all this voting gerrymandering going on I don't know.

Barbara: in a word, yes. Disgusting isn't it.

Could it be to do with this? there have been loads of adverts and lots of stuff on facebook encouraging people to check their registered to vote since they changed the system to individual rather than households.

www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2015/feb/05/missing-voters-individual-electoral-registration-disaster

www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/feb/24/nearly-800000-names-axed-from-voter-register-officials-figures-show

I'm embarassed to say this has completely passed me by, and I usually regard myself as well-informed. I rarely watch TV and then usually only BBC, so never see adverts there, don't look at them in newspapers much and haven't noticed anything on FB. We did get a different letter this year but thought it was just a different way of doing the same process.

I only found out I'd been removed from the electoral roll when I queried my lack of polling card for the last vote.

We registered online, there was a lot of talk about it in the news and the cut off was a couple of weeks ago.

We have never actively registered - somebody always comes around to the house every year and registers us. I was a bit confused this year, but then my polling card came before I had to do anything (we are resident Irish).

I knew about the registration deadline, but didn't think to check as we have been on the roll at the same place for many years.

We didn't get polling cards either, worried we won't be able to vote now! We voted in the GE and the recent local elections though and got cards for both?

I also didn't realise the registration process had changed - this is all a bit worrying

Oh come on, there has been a massive campaign to make sure people are registered. How did you miss it????

I didn't miss the campaign for making sure you are registered but didn't realise the system had changed so I didn't feel there was any need to check as we have been registered here for years and voted for the police comissioner recently. As it happens I was right and we were registered.

I assumed it was aimed at people recently turned 18, moved house, changed name etc.

I don't remember seeing any campaign but if I did I would have ignored it because we have lived in the same house for over 10 years and registered to vote when when moved in.

It would never have occurred to me to actually check I was on the register or that I could have been removed from it.

We didn't get a polling card either. We always return any electoral registration forms sent, and have voted in every election. I saw the drive to get people registered, but I didn't know how people were registered has changed. Planning to vote later, so I hope we are still on the electoral register.

FledglingFridge "I'm on the electoral roll but when I went to vote previously I was told I'd been unregistered. Because reasons apparently."

What on earth does that mean?