Warwick students registered but not allowed to vote

Some Warwick students who registered to vote in their term-time constituency were allegedly refused their vote on the day.

A Facebook group, which just under 200 students have joined, has been set up to offer students a chance to tell their stories and plans how to combat this issue recurring in future elections.

The group cites its aim to “lodge complaints” with Coventry City Council and Warwick District Council and to “request an apology and proof that they are improving how they handle students who register” in the description.

Group founder, first-year Classics postgraduate Simon Collier, told the Boar that the situation was concerning for us as a democracy: “At a time when we see and hear about low turnout for young voters, we need as much as possible to be done to encourage and foster young people to vote in this country.

“Letting the votes of young people fall by the wayside due to bureaucratic and organisational incompetence is a travesty.”

Mr Collier went on to suggest that the problem may be more pronounced at Warwick, given different parts of campus sit in two different constituencies, but there is only one postcode for any on-campus accommodation. This may have caused problems with the online registration system, Collier continued.

“Coventry City council received my registration application, despite the fact I should have been registered with Warwick and Leamington.

“The failure is both with the online system, in misplacing my registration, but also with Coventry City Council in not contacting me, or Warwick District Council, to inform us that they had wrongly received my application.

“We need thorough human oversight, and communication between the two councils, and the university, to prevent errors from happening. […] I hope that we can push for this to be improved for future students at the university, and that the students who have not been given the right to vote will receive a formal apology from our local councils.”

First-year Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) undergraduate Tom Butterworth registered to vote in Coventry South, which includes the University’s campus, before the deadline but was not recognised as a registered voter on the day.

He told the Boar: “I got an email of acknowledgement from some sort of government email address, saying that Coventry would confirm my registration.

“When I went to vote on the day, my name wasn’t on the list so I checked my emails and Coventry council never got in touch with me, like I’d been told they would. So I couldn’t vote!”

The Boar have approached Coventry City Council for comment.