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Success claimed for online registration

08/09/14

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More than a million people have now registered to vote online through the new national system - more than one third by tablet or mobile phone, the Cabinet Office said today.

Electoral registration is one of the three digital by default 'exemplar services' reported as being of live status in the latest quarterly update by the Government Digital Service.

The process, available across England and Wales, allows individuals to register by providing their, address, date of birth and national insurance number. Only 1% of people applying have been unable to provide a national insurance number or date of birth. When unable to provide these, applicants can provide alternative identification to their local authority which may include a UK photo driving licence and passport.

Describing the online system as "a huge success" the Cabinet Office said "People are clearly impressed by the simpler, clearer, and faster online process, with 98% of those responding giving it positive feedback."

Publicity campaigns around the new service have encouraged 100,000 new registrations, 60,000 from "under represented groups", the Cabinet Office claimed.

Constitution minister Sam Gyimah said: "We designed this new online service with the user in mind, and it's greato see that such a large number of people across the UK are using the service and responding well to our improvements. We've made registering to vote easier than ever before and it's great to see that nearly half of those registering in the last month have been under the age of 30. But we know there's more to do to maximise registration rates, so we will continue our efforts to ensure that everybody has their say in the how the country is run."

The Electoral Commission launched a national awareness campaign last week to raise awareness of the move from household registration to individual electoral registration (IER).

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