The government has launched a new, simplified registration service for voters which promises to take just "three minutes", as part of its Individual Electoral Registration (IER) plans.
The online registration service has been extensively tested with real users over many months and today’s live service is compatible with all platforms, the government said, including smartphones and tablets.
Minister of state at the Cabinet Office Greg Clark, who launched the registration process said: “This service will bring voter registration into the 21st century and make it easier, simpler and faster for people to register to vote.
“Putting public services online is saving taxpayers money and giving people access to services when and where they need them.”
Individual Electoral Registration (IER) will see the old and outdated household registration system replaced by individual registration. The government said that 80 percent of the five million people who register to vote each year will be automatically added to the register without needing to apply, through a simple one-step process of being verified against existing records. Testing last year saw a 78 percent of voters would not have to lift a finger to stay on the electoral roll.
It believes this will prevent fraud by enabling verification that everyone on the register is who they say they are, “resulting in greater trust in the legitimacy and fairness of elections.”
Citizens can now register to vote online at www.gov.uk/register-to-vote