I WANT MY VOTE!

Well, now I'm well and truly fucked off, properly kicking-things-and-swearing-loudly fucked off. And the reason? I'm not going to be able to vote in the coming general election because the fucking University of fucking Bath has removed my entry from the electoral roll for Bath on the assumption that only students could possibly be registered to vote on campus, and they bugger off at the end of each year.

ias went through this last European election, when she found that she'd been removed (I did manage to successfully vote in Bath). We were assured that the problem had been fixed. Well, if by "fixed" you mean "fucked up royally in only the way that a university can manage", then I suppose it has been fixed.

I've just phoned the electoral registration officer for Bath and found out that ias has also been removed from the electoral roll. The process for registration at the university seems to be that they remove everyone from the electoral roll each year, then send the registration office a list of only the students living on campus. Since the registration process is driven by the university, the local registration office doesn't send out reminder notes.

Given that the deadline for registration was 11th March, there's no way for me to get on the electoral roll for this election, and it's almost certain that all forty-odd resident tutors at the university have been similarly disenfranchised.

I WANT MY VOTE!

Well, now I'm well and truly fucked off, properly kicking-things-and-swearing-loudly fucked off. And the reason? I'm not going to be able to vote in the coming general election because the fucking University of fucking Bath has removed my entry from the electoral roll for Bath on the assumption that only students could possibly be registered to vote on campus, and they bugger off at the end of each year.

ias went through this last European election, when she found that she'd been removed (I did manage to successfully vote in Bath). We were assured that the problem had been fixed. Well, if by "fixed" you mean "fucked up royally in only the way that a university can manage", then I suppose it has been fixed.

I've just phoned the electoral registration officer for Bath and found out that ias has also been removed from the electoral roll. The process for registration at the university seems to be that they remove everyone from the electoral roll each year, then send the registration office a list of only the students living on campus. Since the registration process is driven by the university, the local registration office doesn't send out reminder notes.

Given that the deadline for registration was 11th March, there's no way for me to get on the electoral roll for this election, and it's almost certain that all forty-odd resident tutors at the university have been similarly disenfranchised.

I WANT MY VOTE! (part 2)

From Statutory Instrument 2001 No. 341, Representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulations:

23. - (1) A registration officer may require any person to give information required for the purposes of that officer's duties in maintaining registers of parliamentary and local government electors.

(2) A registration officer is under a duty to require persons to give information required for the purposes of that officer's duty under section 3(1) of the Juries Act 1974[15].

(3) If any person -
(a) fails to comply with, or
b) gives false information in pursuance of,
any such requisition of the registration officer as is mentioned in this regulation, he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

The university is acting as the householder from the perspective of the local electoral registration officer, who therefore expects a full list of electors for the register. The university is trying to claim that non-student residents should make individual registrations (ias and I did), but is clearly then cancelling those with its householder submission.

That'll be a £1000 fine, then.

I WANT MY VOTE! (part 2)

From Statutory Instrument 2001 No. 341, Representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulations:

23. - (1) A registration officer may require any person to give information required for the purposes of that officer's duties in maintaining registers of parliamentary and local government electors.

(2) A registration officer is under a duty to require persons to give information required for the purposes of that officer's duty under section 3(1) of the Juries Act 1974[15].

(3) If any person -
(a) fails to comply with, or
b) gives false information in pursuance of,
any such requisition of the registration officer as is mentioned in this regulation, he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

The university is acting as the householder from the perspective of the local electoral registration officer, who therefore expects a full list of electors for the register. The university is trying to claim that non-student residents should make individual registrations (ias and I did), but is clearly then cancelling those with its householder submission.

That'll be a £1000 fine, then.