19 April 2021

Thousands rush to register to vote as deadline day arrives

19 April 2021

Thousands of people have been rushing to register to vote in next month’s elections ahead of Monday’s night’s deadline.

Some 31,530 online applications to register had been submitted on Monday by 3pm, according to Government figures.

The highest number submitted online in a single day so far this year was 33,655, on April 6.

The final total for Monday is likely to beat this number by some distance.

Anyone not already registered to vote can do so before 11.59pm by visiting gov.uk/register-to-vote.

Contests are taking place across Great Britain on “Super Thursday” – May 6 – including some that were postponed from last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Voters in Scotland and Wales will be choosing new parliaments.

In London there will be elections for the mayor and assembly, which were originally due to take place last year.

Across the rest of England, voters will be choosing a mixture of councillors, local mayors, regional mayors and police commissioners.

There is also a parliamentary by-election to choose a new MP for the seat of Hartlepool.

The scale of Super Thursday means every voter in Great Britain will be able to take part in at least one poll, making it the biggest event of its kind outside a general election.

It will also be the first big electoral test for Sir Keir Starmer since he became Labour leader in April 2020, and for Prime Minister Boris Johnson since his general election victory in December 2019.

For people wanting to use a postal vote in the elections, the deadline for applications in England and Wales is April 20.

The deadline for postal votes in Scotland has already passed.

A breakdown of applications to register to vote in the month to April 18 shows 638,636 were submitted in England, with 96,248 in Scotland and 47,006 in Wales.

No scheduled elections are taking place in Northern Ireland on May 6.

Some 23% of applications submitted in the month to April 18 were from people under 25, while 31% were aged 25 to 34.

This year’s parliamentary elections in Wales are the first in which 16 and 17-year-olds can take part.

Voters in Scotland aged 16 and 17 have been able to vote in elections since 2016, while in England the minimum voting age is still 18.

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