Following surge and website crash, UK looks to extend voter registration for European Union referendum

LONDON (Reuters) – The British government is looking to extend the voter registration period for a June 23 referendum on EU membership after a late surge in applications crashed a key website shortly before the Tuesday night deadline.

More than a million potential voters have applied to register online over the last week, half of them on the final day, the government said, with a peak of more than 200,000 per hour ahead of the midnight deadline.

Turnout is expected to be important in determining the outcome of the close-fought referendum, with young people considered to be more pro-EU but also less likely to vote. More than half of those who registered on the final day were under 34.

“I am very clear that people should continue to register today,” Prime Minister David Cameron told Parliament on Wednesday, adding that the government was discussing the options with the Electoral Commission watchdog.

“We are working urgently with them... to make sure those who register today and who registered last night will be able to vote in the EU referendum,” he added.

Several senior politicians and the commission itself had earlier called for the deadline to be extended.

The commission is planning for turnout of around 80 percent, well above the 66 percent seen in last year’s national election, Chairwoman Jenny Watson told Sky News.

Matt Hancock, a minister in the government department responsible for voter registration, said there had been problems with the website in the final two hours before the deadline due to record levels of users. It is not known how many people had tried and failed to register before midnight, he said.

Hancock said it was likely legislation would be needed to ensure those who registered after the deadline were allowed to vote and that any extension would only be for a short time.

The problems come after the Electoral Commission said last week a small number of EU citizens had mistakenly received notification they were registered to vote in the referendum but would not be allowed to do so.

The Guardian newspaper also reported thousands of postal votes from Britons in Germany may have got lost in the post after confusion about the type of pre-paid envelope supplied.

With polls showing Britons are evenly split, a narrow win for “In” could result in pro-Brexit campaigners questioning the way the referendum was conducted.

Bernard Jenkin, a pro-Brexit lawmaker in Cameron’s Conservative Party, said the deadline was set because the register had to be formalized and published before the vote.

“It is probably legal to keep the site open for a short period, a few hours..., but any idea of rewriting the rules in a substantial way would be complete madness and make this country look like an absolute shambles,” he told Hancock during an exchange in Parliament.