Voting

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No matter their political leanings, remember to remind your young people that they can register to vote at both home and university addresses ( they can only vote once!) or register for proxy or postal votes.

Lots of universities are in marginal seats!

A document was leaked which suggested the government might in part be trying to bank on students not being able to register in time for a snap election.

Have just been talking with DS about this very subject. However, with DS's friends it's more the other way round. A lot of them live in a marginal constituency currently held by a pro-Brexit Conservative. As a number of DS's friends are not keen on pro-Brexit Conservatives they have been applying for a postal vote so that they can still vote in their home constituency if an election happens during term time. As it happens, friends in question are all going to be living in university accommodation in safe Labour seats.

One university I know of which is in a really marginal constituency is Keele University which is in the constituency of Newcastle-under-Lyme where Labour beat the Conservatives by just 30 votes in the last general election. There were press reports of some students being denied the vote despite having registered and having the polling cards to prove it because the staff at the polling station had been issued with out of date registers! So I think the moral of that story is that if you want to vote at a university constituency (a) register as soon as you move in; (b) take your polling card with you to prove you are registered; and (c) turn up at the polling station early in the day so you have time to argue if an official tries to turn you away!

Interesting story. I shall pass that on to DS as his mate is off to Keele!

I'm hoping they'll highlight this at freshers week. I've contacted our candidate to suggest we get some leaflets specifically on registering for the freshers fair.

Dd is annoyed by me telling her to sign forms for a postal vote. She is summer born and so hasn’t voted before. She wants to travel back to vote traditionally. I said this may be impractical and costly.
She has signed the forms today (she begrudgingly agrees with me) but it’s 11 working days before the postal vote intention is registered.

We checked into Manchester university yesterday and they had a team with a stall in the registration room signing new students up to vote. We had already signed her up before going to university but very pleased that they were on to this. Hope other universities are as vigilant.