ALMOST 20,000, mostly young, people have registered to vote in the general election next week than did for the unitary elections, Cornwall Council has revealed as it urges people to get out and vote on June 8.

 

Acting Returning Officer Kate Kennally says 429,886 people in Cornwall registered to vote in next week’s Parliamentary election, almost 20,000 more than the number who registered to vote in the recent unitary council elections. She is encouraging everyone to make sure they use their vote on June 8.

 

 

 

The council’s electoral service staff have processed 18,862 new voter registration applications since the local council elections on May 4, with overseas applications increasing by 400. They have also processed more than 10,000 new postal vote applications over the past month – bringing the total number of postal votes in Cornwall to 84,348.

 

 

 

One of the groups showing a significant increase in voter registration levels over the past two months is young people. With research showing that 18-24 year olds are the most under represented age group at the ballot box, earlier this year the council staged a campaign aimed specifically at young people in Cornwall to improve voter registration rates ahead of the local elections in May.

 

 

 

The “Hear My Voice” campaign, which involved Council staff delivering presentations to more than 800 young people in 11 secondary schools across Cornwall during March, together with a high profile social media campaign, saw the number of 16-18 year olds registered to vote nearly doubling from 1,709 to 3,399 during the course of the campaign. You can register to vote at 16 but you can't actually vote until you are 18.

 

 

 

The overall turnout for parliamentary elections in Cornwall has increased by two percent since 2010, with 294,828 (69.75%) people casting their vote in 2015 compared with 277, 835 (67.21%) in 2010. Cornwall’s figure was above the national average in both elections.

 

 

 

Acting Returning Officer Kate Kennally, the Council’s Chief Executive, is keen to see a further increase in the turnout figures for Cornwall for this election and is encouraging people to go out and vote.

 

 

 

“While Cornwall’s overall turnout figure of 69.75% was higher than the national average for the 2015 election, there were some significant variations in the figures across different constituencies” she said. “These ranged from a figure of just over 71% in the constituency with the highest turnout, to 65% in the area with the lowest turnout.“

 

 

 

“Almost 430,000 people have registered to vote for this election and it would be really good to see as many as possible use their vote, particularly in those areas which have had a lower turnout in the past.“