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Electoral Administration Bill

When I took those forms along to the electoral registration officer in Southwark, she did not think that the names were not exactly the same or that the surname and the first name were in a different order. We must recognise the major problem of under-registration. One of this Bill’s objectives is to tackle that problem, because we cannot have a situation in which people in our democracy do not have the right to vote. The question involves not only individuals not having the right to vote, but social cohesion. Under-registration is not evenly spread throughout the community—it is a particularly worrying feature among black and ethnic minority communities, people living on council estates and poorer people. If we want our democracy to include everybody, we must go the extra mile to ensure that everyone is registered and that our democracy does what it says on the tin.