At uni- postal vote?

[Miljah]

DS is away at uni.

I am persuading him () to Get On with getting himself sorted with a vote, given that their might be another EU referendum.

He can either:

Register locally, or
Get a postal vote for here.

Legally, should he register local to his uni? Does anyone know?

I guess the best bet is to register locally then get a postal vote - but then he'd have to change it every time he came home over summer, if something major, like another EU vote or a GE happened over the 3 months he's home in the summer!

What does your DC do?

Thanks. That EC link is more relevant than mine.
I agree it is up to them and nothing to do with me. We have taken them down to the polling station since all 5 were very little to get involved in and see the political process so I am just keen they start and keep voting, that's all.

I do think though that as you are only at university for 3 years and probably back home after that your base is your parents' house and you will probably spend more time at your parents' house over the 5 years than your university temporary addresses when you average it over 5 years.

You might find the uni enroll him anyway if he is in uni accomodation. I couldn't get one uni to not enroll me, even though I was a post grad and only there Mon-Fri.

I would 100% register at both. As others have said this is legal and that means that he can vote in elections at both addresses but he cannot vote in the same election twice. When I was a student I voted twice on the same day (at home by proxy vote and at uni in person) but it was in different elections (local council at home and Scottish parliament at uni) so this was legal. In the event of a general election (where obviously he can only vote in one constituency) he can choose the constituency where his vote is more likely to lead to his desired outcome.

I whole heartedly agree about the importance of voting and encouraging them to do so.

I guess we don't know where they will go after university, many do go straight into jobs, or carry on with their studies. I'm not entirely sure where dd will end up over the summer hols either, but if she did come home after her course and through all of the holidays, she would probably be at university for 120/260 weeks. (4 year course) It's a close run thing.

Now that the voter registration is based on individual registration, universities cannot enrol their students who live in halls of residence en masse, the way that they used to be able to. This is why it is so important for students to register themselves as unless they do so they won't be able to vote in elections at their university address.

If they register at both then this solves the problem of trying to second guess where they will be in the summer. Indeed if they are physically at home, but would prefer their vote to count at their university address then they can still do that (postal or proxy vote)if they want to (and indeed the other way around of course!).

I suppose I just seem to have some kind of psychological issue with this registration in two places thing which is weird really. May be it comes from thinking the electoral register is used to verify where people live and that it has a feeling of not being quite right to be registered in two places. It must just be a quirk of me. Anyway I certainly hope everyone does vote . There is probably more chance a student might break the law and vote in both places if they are registered in two places without realising that is a serious offence too.

I do understand that thought totally Xenia, it's an odd quirk of the electoral system.