Call for automatic registration as teen sign-up may be low

A CALL has been made to introduce automatic voting registration for 16- and 17-year-olds after early indications suggested the proportion of the age group signed up to participate in today’s Senedd election may be disappointingly low.

The picture across Wales is patchy because most local authorities haven’t released registration figures, but those that have show that high numbers of teenagers who can now legally vote won’t be able to do so.

Today is the first time that 16- and 17-year-olds have been able to vote in Wales after the Senedd passed a law allowing them to do so.

Until 2014 those reaching the minimum voting age were automatically added to the electoral register after the householder of the home they lived in – usually a parent – filled in a form that was returned to the local council.

Now, however, such young people have to fill in a form themselves.

The UK Conservative / Liberal Democrat coalition that changed the law said the reform was to make it harder for electoral malpractice to occur.

But those who opposed the change said the number of prosecutions for “vote cheating” was minuscule and that it had been introduced as a cynical measure to exclude people from the electoral register who were unlikely to be supporters of the government.

Bridgend council has released provisional figures relating to those 16- and 17-year-olds who registered to vote before the April 19 deadline.

Of the 3,108 residents in the county borough who fall within that age group, only 1,602 (51.5%) registered to appear on the electoral roll.

Six other local authority areas have released figures relating to registrations by 16- and 17-year-olds up to April 7, nearly two weeks before the deadline.

In Swansea, 1,697 had registered (32.6%), 1,107 had in Neath Port Talbot (35.3%) and 1,138 had in Pembrokeshire (41.3%).

In Conwy numbers were higher with 1,383 or 57.2% of 16-year-olds registered, in Denbighshire 1,229 (57.7%) and in Vale of Glamorgan it was 1,969 (64.9%).

The voter numbers were compared to population age estimates for each of the areas in 2019, to estimate what percentage of young people had registered to vote.

One council official who has been involved in promoting voter registration to newly qualified voters spoke to us candidly on condition that they were not identified.

They said: “To be honest, the figures are disappointing.

“I’d thought that young people were more engaged with political issues, but I’m revising my views on that.

“We had a budget to promote voter registration to 16- and 17-year-olds specifically, using the digital channels they access.

“The figures for registration aren’t great and the numbers who turn out to vote will be lower.”