Are you one of Glasgow's 9000 unconfirmed electors?

Published: 18 January 2016

Several thousand residents urged to respond to voting registration reminders. Deadline: 20 November 2015

Friday, 20 November 2015 is the deadline to make sure that people in Glasgow are registered to vote and that their details appear on the city's electoral register or voters' roll as it's also known (published 1 December).

The way people register to vote changed in the UK in September last year. The introduction of Individual Electoral Registration (IER) means that each person needs to be separately registered as an elector from others in their household and is responsible for their own voter registration.

Last year the council's Electoral Registration Office wrote to every elector in Glasgow advising them of this change, and telling them if they needed to take any further action. To date more than 98% of the city's electors under the old system of registration have successfully transitioned  but around 9000 people have yet to respond to reminders, home visits or the city-wide public awareness campaign.

These 'unconfirmed electors' will therefore not appear on the published register on 1 December.

In addition to possibly missing a chance to vote, not appearing on the electoral register may also affect the results of credit checks and people's credit ratings when companies perform such checks e.g. hire purchase, loan or mortgage applications.

Hugh Munro, Electoral Registration Officer at Glasgow City Council, said: "We carry out a campaign each year to make sure that we hold the correct details for those that are entitled and eligible to vote in local, national and European elections and referendums.

"With the introduction of Individual Electoral Registration we've also had to confirm the identity of the voters on our electoral register and embarked on a yearlong campaign to do this.

"The majority of people are now confirmed but I would urge people that have not responded to reminders that we've sent them to spend five minutes registering online at www.gov.uk/register-to-vote or contact our office 0141 287 4444."

If people miss the deadline for December's published register the next deadline is 14 December 2015 to appear on the supplementary register published on 5 January 2016.