Fined £80 for not joining

[Honeyandapple]

The electoral roll.
Is this a new thing? The council have sent me a letter to my new address saying I must register to vote and if I don't register I will be fined.
Seems quite a lot and I'm unsure if this is a one-off fine or every time there's an election. I have always voted previously, but I now work in a position dealing with a lot of people in very vulnerable situations often with severe MH issues and often ex offenders. I'd quite like not to be so easily traceable!

AIBU not joining the electoral role and expecting not to have to pay a fine.

[quote Howlooseisyourgoose]@LadyofTheManners they have to confirm the details periodically so have to ask you even if your residents haven’t changed.[/quote]
No I know but this will be after I've filled the form in.

You can choose not to be visible on the electoral roll. I do it, as do many people.

That is an option you can take when you fill in the form or whatever.

www.gov.uk/electoral-register/opt-out-of-the-open-register

They tried it with my 16 year old dd, not even old enough to vote and is a boarder at school.
Sent us a fine, I challenged it as she was unable to know about it at school. She still had to go online and register, including NI number.
I think they are trying to get money anyway they can atm.

YABU and it would concern me that someone with your job cannot understand the electoral register form, and cannot Google to research how to fill it in.
How would you advise clients who are at risk how to stay anonymous on the register if you can't do it yourself?

It's always been a legal requirement to be on the electoral roll but you can opt out of being public.

www.gov.uk/electoral-register

Cancel the cheque.

but I now work in a position dealing with a lot of people in very vulnerable situations often with severe MH issues and often ex offenders. I'd quite like not to be so easily traceable!

Highly unlikely you are traceable- only way is for someone to go to the local council offices and ask to see the electoral roll.

And yes, it's a legal requirement to be registered.

Councils are really fascist about the electoral roll- I didn’t want to fill it out years ago, and got hounded with threats of fines, so did.
Don’t know why they get so rabid about it.
Does anyone know the reason?

You are lucky it was only £80. It can be up to £1000. It's on every letter you receive normally.

For those people saying you can 'opt out of being on the public roll' this is not quite true. @Gatehouse77 @SoulofanAggron

You can opt out of an online version which companies- such as 192.com- buy (and other marketing companies.)

You cannot opt out 100% because the paper held records at the local council office are available for the public to view if they turn up and ask.

Opt out of the 'open register'

There are 2 versions of the electoral register - the full version and the ‘open register’ (known as the ‘edited register’ in Northern Ireland).

If you registered to vote anonymously your details will not appear on either version of the electoral register. You will still be able to vote.

Taken from the government website as linked above.

I've forgotten to do mine. Must do it later.

It isn’t actually true that the full electoral roll isn’t available to the public. It must legally be made available for viewing under Representation of the People regulations. Anyone can go and view it in their local council offices, under supervision. You can’t take photos or photocopy it but you can take handwritten notes.

@JaniceBattersby I've just said that twice, 2 posts down :)

@Gatehouse77 Can you link rather than quote because I don't think that is entirely the case.

It has been the case for years and years that one way of tracing people was to use the electoral roll but you had to go in person to read it.

Oh and FWIW we have opted out of the open register for years. I have never seen the wording to say you will not appear anywhere.

Register anonymously.

For very good reason linked to Dh's job both him and I are on the anonymous register. However to get this, we had to prove we had a very good reason to do so.

Just to clarify, registering to vote has been compulsory for a long time. You can be fined up to £1,000 if you fail to register and the council takes you to court. However, very few people were fined in part because, under the old household registration scheme, it was difficult to identify who was responsible for the failure to register.

More recently the law was changed to make you responsible for your own registration. At the same time councils were given the ability to impose an £80 fixed penalty on anyone who fails to register.

@Gatehouse77 You needed to read down on the website you linked to.

This is what it says

When you opt out of the open register, your details will still appear on the full version of the electoral register

The full version and what it can be used for
Everyone’s name and address goes on the full version of the electoral register, and you cannot opt out. This is the version of the register that’s used for elections and referendums.

The full version of the register can only be used for:

electoral administration purposes (such as sending out poll cards before elections)
campaigning activities (for example, candidates and political parties sending election communications to voters, surveying opinions or fundraising)
preventing and detecting crime
checking applications for loans or credit
jury summoning in England, Wales and Northern Ireland

@crispcottonsheets If you read the Gov website which I have copied and pasted from, you cannot opt out 100%. No one can.

@oakleaffy

Councils are really fascist about the electoral roll- I didn’t want to fill it out years ago, and got hounded with threats of fines, so did. Don’t know why they get so rabid about it. Does anyone know the reason?

They have a legal obligation to keep an up to date register.

The primary reason is so people can vote - I assume for some reason you didn't want to vote in any elections or referendums?

It has some secondary uses like determining eligibility for Jury Service, Council tax benefits and so on. It's also used by credit referencing and identity and background checking agencies, so getting credit and stuff like a CRB check can be more prolonged if you're not on there.

I love it that the Council ensuring you can vote is "fascist".

I would assume @Honeyandapple that the very few people who can be totally anon and where people need permission to view their entry are at the extremes of society:

High court judges in very sensitive trials
Change of identity people like James Bulger and other murderers.
Members of the security services ( but they can be given a new ID anyway)
Possibly former PMs and Home Secretaries (but they get police protection for life anyway and people do know where they live.)