Amidst concerns of low voter turnout, the unusual spectre of a December general election has done little to deter people from registering. As registration closed last night, 4.79 million people had registered to vote since the election was called in late October. On November 27 alone, 641,000 people registered, setting a new record for a single day.
But how does this flood of newly registered voters break down demographically? Mostly, they’re young – around 65 per cent are under 35. Of these one 1.68 million are under 25, and 1.4 million are aged between 25 and 34. This is an even higher number of young people than those who registered in 2017, when a so-called youthquake was deemed responsible for Labour’s better-than-expected performance.
Youth turnout – that is, turnout for people aged between 18 and 24 – during the 2017 general election was the highest in 25 years, with 64 per cent of registered young people casting their ballots. This brought the age group’s turnout in line with 25-34 and 35-44 age groups, ending a long-established disparity. Research suggests that people who have voted once are more likely to vote again, which bodes well for another high-youth turnout this year.
Voter registrations have ramped up across the last few weeks, but they are’t uniformly spread. There were several surges associated with particular events. Voter registration was rumbling along until October 30, when 177,000 people signed up in a day. The reason for this was obvious – Labour’s recent announcement that they’d back Boris Johnson’s call for a snap election in December.
Another spike – of around 158,000 – occurred on November 12, but the reasons aren’t as clear. Dominating the headlines that day was flooding in parts of northern England, and Labour and the Liberal Democrats’ criticism of the Conservatives’ response; the Brexit party’s Nigel Farage also announced his plans to field candidates in Labour seats.
Numbers trended upwards from this point, but there were another two notable surges of 308,000, on November 22, and 366,000, on November 25. Friday, November 22 was the unofficial National Voter Registration Day, backed by campaigners, civil society groups and trade unions with the social media hashtag #RegisterToVote. Labour also backed the drive, encouraging activists to share videos on social media outlining why they were voting.
There was also a huge 351,000 surge on between November 24 and 25. While the spike cannot be chalked up to a single cause, the Mirror pointed out that a call to action by grime artist Stormzy, who urged his fans to vote Labour on Twitter, might have played a role.
The huge surge in registrations on the final day, November 27, topped out at 641,000 people. This beats the previous record of 622,389 set on the final day of registration for the 2017 general election.
Any change in the number of registered voters will matter most in marginal seats, but new registrations don’t always equate to new voters – some of these people may already be on local authority lists. The Electoral Reform Society says that this could be true of up to a third of those who have registered in recent weeks. This could include people applying despite already being registered, at a new address, or at a second address such as university accommodation.
Younger voters are usually regarded as more likely to vote Labour, which is why the party has been pushing hard for registrations. For the same reasons, it’s generally thought that the Conservatives will do worse the more people sign up.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
