College JCRs including St Catherine’s, Pembroke and Worcester, have urged students to register to vote following the government’s planned boundary review of voting constituencies based on the number of people registered to vote on 22nd November.
Students who registered to vote before September have now been taken off the list of registered voters, meaning currently around one per cent of students are registered. Cherwell understands that if not enough students register to vote before the 22nd then the government is likely to make Oxford’s constituencies bigger, meaning each person’s vote will count for less. Both Worcester and St Catherine’s JCRs have organised collective sign-up event for students to register to vote together.
Sarah White, St Catherine’s JCR President, told Cherwell, “I can’t stress enough how important it is that everyone registers to vote. For students in particular, it is way beyond time that we fully exercised our democratic rights to vote. With such low student turnout to national elections, we’ve already seen that governments don’t bother prioritise our voices – we’ve had one enormous fee hike in our lifetime, and you only need to glance at the new Higher Education green papers to realise it’s more than likely to happen again – and soon.
“These papers also propose that future increases in tuition fees no longer get discussed in Parliament, but go straight to the government to be decided upon. We really can’t maintain any level of apathy whilst the future of higher education is under such threat.”
Joseph McShane, Pembroke JCR president, told Cherwell, “With the boundary review changes fast approaching, if we aren’t registered then the constituency will likely grow in size, effectively diluting the intensity of the student vote in Oxford. ”
Under the new Individual Electoral Registration system introduced last June, everyone is now responsible for registering to vote themselves rather than the previous system of people registering everyone eligible to vote in the household.
