OH NO Tens of thousands denied the right to vote!

[0phelia]

The Register to vote site crashed, so tens of thousands have now missed the deadline.

If there is enough noise the Gvnt might extend the deadline

Petition here

Looks like they are going to extend the deadline. All the major parties support it, as do the electoral commission.

In terms of the "Well, they should have done it earlier" brigade. Nope, they should have done it before the published deadline. They chose to do it in the last day - because they believed they had that time. That time was taken away from them. You did it earlier. Well done. Give yourself an extra piece of cake with your tea this afternoon. Then stop telling other people they should live their life the way you do.

I'll have coffee and walnut cake thanks.

Actually it's about accepting the consequences of your actions. If you are disorganised/can't be arsed/have more trust in technology than it deserves than you have to accept the fact that you fucked up and missed your chance to vote.

It really pisses me off that some people expect others to accommodate their flakiness all the time. If most people can manage to register to vote on time, why can't everyone?

It's about people following instructions. They were told they could register up until midnight last night. That simple. You know how busy each and every person is? You understand their lifestyle? Other pressures? Approach to managing their time?

It could have been foreseen - every time there is a voter registration deadline there is a massive influx on the last day. This is because (for a large proportion of the electorate) doing things last minute is an inate part of their personality and psychology. You can train yourself to be different from that. But most people don't. Maybe we should add an element of uncertainty to the day itself. "Randomly we will close the booths for one hour at some point but we aren't telling you when". That way we can rule out those feckless bastards who have only put aside one hour to vote.

It may be an innate part of your personality but it will have consequences for you and you should accept that.

If I struggle to get up every morning and it makes me late and I miss my train for work I will probably be sacked. If I turn up late every time I arrange to meet my friends I'll probably end up with no friends.

If the consequences are serious enough for people, they do tend to change. Therefore I think that actually those people who chose to try to register half an hour before the deadline didn't really care.

Don't understand the thing about the polling booths. So long as you are in the queue at 10pm you get to vote. By extending the time for vote registration you are allowing people who possibly didn't even consider registering until today to have extra time as well (and in the process the system could crash again, how long do we extend it for those extra 'new' people?) In fact why not just abolish deadlines full stop? Tax return due? No, fill it in at your leisure, HMRC don't give a toss about when you pay your tax.

Yes, but if you turned up for work 3 months early you would also be sacked. let's not try to conflate two completely different situations. Ones an every day (ish) activity. One is a specific deadline driven activity.

Also, this

newsthump.com/2016/06/08/three-months-wasnt-long-enough-claims-man-who-couldnt-register-to-vote-at-1150pm/

What a twat. No I disagree, getting to work on time IS a deadline as is registering to vote. The consequences are difference, the timelines are different but both are deadlines (and actually I think a boss would love it if you offered to start a new job 3 months early without being paid for it).

I think we have to agree to disagree because you think my comparisons are unfair and I think yours are baffling.

Cutting, and insightful repartee shitchef. Wish I had used the "what a twat" gambit earlier in the conversation.

Yes, we will have to agree to disagree. I personally think the rules and system were put in place, agreed upon by all sides and then an IT glitch removed the ability of people to access that system. Therefore they shouldn't be penalised. I also find your self-righteousness baffling.

Righto. What you seriously don't think that bloke is a twat?!

They stuck to the deadline ffs!

shitchef - just for the record - newsthump is a satire website. That guy doesn't really exist. It is an amusing story, not based on reality.

Apologies if that was not obvious from either the tone of the article, the website name or the website design.

Sorry, not my sense of humour. I actually know people like that. Apologies accepted though.

Cool - I assumed everybody would know that one because it is fairly well known.

I still don't understand this. We haven't had to register and yet when it's reported it makes it sound like everyone has tom they're not very clear at all.

If you are already registered to vote you are fine - this is for people who aren't registered to vote, ie were not previously eligible, have recently changed address, chose not to vote previously.

Deadline has been extended to Thursday to accommodate "twats" it has just been announced.

Yes but nothing makes that clear. You must register to vote. Everyone must register to vote. Very confusing

And on 23rd June you have until 10pm to cast your vote. That's 10pm for all the twats who think the world revolves around them. Polling stations open at 7am. That's 15 hours in which to cast your vote.

I suspect if the vote is to remain Farage etc will be moaning the polling stations weren't open long enough.

Deadline has been extended to Thursday to accommodate "twats" it has just been announced.

HA I would love it if that was the actual announcement. HARSH BUT FAIR

stealth, yes but some people choose to not register to vote too. Or just don't bother registering to vote. Or move house. Or are eligible for this but not for other elections. Or have just turned 18.

Yes but they don't explain that. It isn't the case that "everyone must register".

stealth - no, but if you didn't vote in May, or you know anyone who didn't vote in May, it may be worth registering EVEN if you think you already are - you might have fallen off the list.

I make sure I re-register every year - just to ensure I don't fall off the list.

Deadline has just been extended to accommodate "twats

Oh good, another deadline for the eejits to miss.

Ah ok thanks that makes sense.
I was just listening to all the ranting about how everyone MUST MUST register or you won't get to vote, looking at my polling card i received without doing anything which claims to be everything I need to vote and thinking hmmmm

I can only assume that different people have different concepts of the word "deadline". In my book, if you do something, or attempt to do something, before a specific deadline, then you've not missed the, um, deadline. If the thing that you attempt to do can't be done because a tech system has crashed, for example, you haven't missed the original deadline - that deadline has effectively been moved.

The more I write the word "deadline" the weirder it looks...

To be fair to the seeming twats, I think there have been an unprecedented amount of waverers on this subject (me too) so it's possible many of them were not going to vote but then saw the light one way or another & rushed to sign up once the penny dropped.

Whatever the reason at least they can now all vote, let's hope having been given that opportunity they use it!