Renfrewshire's 13,400 missing electors

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The search is on for Renfrewshire's 13,400 missing electors.

Election authorities in Renfrewshire are urging over 13,000 residents who currently aren't on the electoral roll to make sure that they are registered to vote in next year's council and Scottish parliament elections.

Over the next month, the electoral registration officer will be sending out an annual registration form to all households in Renfrewshire to update the electoral register. If people don't return a completed form, or fail to confirm previously given details for two years in a row, then everyone in that household is excluded from the election register and so is unable to vote.

"Sometimes people wrongly assume that obtaining or confirming their vote is complicated or time-consuming. That's simply not the case," said Edward Duffy, Renfrewshire's electoral registration officer. "Our aim is to make it easy for people to be able to vote. The situation in Renfrewshire is no different to other areas in that a growing number of people are not registering to vote. Almost one in ten adults here aren't registered. We particularly want to get the message across to them that there's still time to change that position and have the right to vote in important elections next year.

This year, in an effort to reach Renfrewshire's 13,400 missing electors, electoral registration staff will be delivering and collecting forms from households where persons are not currently registered.

For those people who are on the register and don't have to make any changes to their details, they can re-register by phone. Full details are given on the electoral registration form.

The campaign to register voters is also being supported by Renfrewshire Council who have worked with Renfrewshire Valuation Joint Board on the 'No Vote, No Voice' campaign to promote voter registration and turnout.

Paul Gannon, chair of Renfrewshire Council's working group on Voter Registration and Turnout, said: "We've previously carried out a series of promotions in shopping centres, colleges and workplaces, and also used radio and cinema ads, to get across the 'No Vote, No Voice' message. To have your say in who represents your interests in the Scottish parliament and Renfrewshire Council people must register to vote. The right to vote and using that vote is a fundamental part of the democratic process. This is the chance for people to make sure that they can exercise that right."

Press Release: Tuesday 12 September 2006

The 'No Vote - No Voice' campaign is jointly promoted by Renfrewshire Valuation Joint Board and Renfrewshire Council