Electoral System Could Be "Stretched To Breaking Point" Ahead Of Vote

Electoral registration systems could be “stretched to breaking point” ahead of the general election , according to the head of a cross-party committee of MPs.

A new report from the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities committee today suggests that millions of people could be at risk of disenfranchisement at the general election, due to the electoral registration system not being up to scratch. 

The report points to figures from the Electoral Commission that estimated as many as eight million people were missing from the electoral register and more “not registered accurately”. 

Committee chair and Labour MP Clive Betts has now said that “many registration offices are flagging” ahead of the election, expected later this year. 

He told PoliticsHome there is “a problem with the current system of registration”. 

“Because so many people don’t register, some of them then suddenly realise they aren’t registered when a general election is called,” Betts explained. 

Betts described the current set-up as “almost an event led system,” that means there is a “surge” in people trying to register ahead of polling day. 

Betts said that this combined with additional new rules that need to be taken into consideration around postal voting and overseas voting, “many registration offices are flagging”. 

“We don’t know whether they will be stretched to breaking point or stretched to near breaking point,” he added. 

Last year new voter ID rules were introduced in England for the first time, in a major shake-up of electoral rules. 

The system has faced criticism that it risks disenfranchising demographics that are less likely to have the acceptable forms of identification, such as a passport. 

The committee has now said that the list of acceptable IDs