Thousands of Warwick students yet to register to vote

Thousands of students at the University of Warwick, and all over the country, have failed to register to vote in the 2015 general election, according to research published last week for Sunday Politics.

While universities used to be able to register all first-year students as they enrolled, a change in the electoral system that came into play this summer sees each individual responsible for registering themselves.

87 percent of voters have been automatically transferred, but of the 13 percent who have not, it is the student population that appears to have been left out.

This poses a significant problem, given that there are 12 seats at the next general election that will be decided by the student population.

According to Nick Hillman, of the Higher Education Policy Institute: “With the next election looking like it will be very close, 12 seats could decide who makes up the next government.”

The BBC measured the changes in voter registration under the new system in 30 different constituencies, all of which showed a drop-off in voter numbers since the new system was introduced.

The results show that the fall was consistently more marked in the 21 areas with a large student population, one of which is Coventry where the vast majority of first-year undergraduates at Warwick currently live.

“When students register to vote in their term time constituency it does ask if you are a student and would like to stay registered at your home address,” said Connor O’Shea, a second-year undergraduate of Ancient History at Warwick.

“The problem is that students need to make the effort to register to vote in the first place.”

It is not possible to prove how many of those that have yet to register are students, but local authorities and student bodies are confident that a large number of those unregistered in those areas are students, according to last week’s report.

Warwick Students’ Union (SU) is “working really closely with both Warwickshire and Coventry Councils” to improve student voter registration, according to the Union’s Democracy and Development officer, Rob Ankcorn.

He continued: “The results of this are plenty, with the most visual being (SU President) Cat Turhan’s face being on billboards and buses encouraging students to register to vote.”

Matthew Chester, a third-year undergraduate of Life Sciences at Warwick, told the Boar that it hasn’t been made clear enough to students that they need to register online to vote: “I’ve seen adverts for it, and that’s how I knew.”

For students, there is some confusion surrounding the possibility of registering as a voter in both home and term time constituencies, but only voting in one for a general election.

“I just [registered for both] to prove to the council that young people want to vote,” said second-year English undergraduate, Emily Victoria Dunford.

Ms Dunford went on to add that she was more likely to use her vote at her term time constituency (Leamington South): “here, my vote counts – at home, my constituency (North Shropshire) is very, very Tory and it’s a safe seat.”

Both students are planning to vote in the 2015 General Election.