Multiple students across Oxford have reported being turned away from polling stations during Thursday’s local elections after discovering they were not listed on the electoral register despite believing they had registered through the University’s enrolment system.
Students across several colleges, including St Anne’s, Somerville, and Pembroke, said they had opted in to share their information with the electoral register during online enrolment through the University’s Student Self Service system at the beginning of the academic year, only to be informed on polling day that they were not registered.
A student at St Anne’s told Cherwell: “I’m really frustrated I couldn’t vote today, especially because I’d talked directly with the candidate I was going to vote for, put up posters in my window, and tried to spread the word. I’d gotten very involved, and now it feels a bit like it was for nothing. I also find it frustrating and concerning that my registration for the county council elections last year did not carry over this year.”
In a statement to Cherwell, a University spokesperson said: “The University takes its responsibilities to support student electoral registration seriously and has an established process, developed in partnership with Oxford City Council, to help students register to vote through the University enrolment system.” The spokesperson added that the University was “aware that a small number of students reported difficulties or confusion regarding their polling location or registration status on polling day” and said it was “looking carefully into those cases.”
Oxford City Council also told Cherwell that “a handful” of students who registered through the University were not picked up during the registration process. It added that, where students were able to confirm they had applied via the University, “all were able to vote on May 7th.” Multiple students affected told Cherwell that they were not informed of this by the polling station. Some were encouraged to call the Council’s electoral services, yet upon fully explaining the situation, were told, as one student put it, “to register through the government website next time, but nothing about being allowed to vote this time”.
The issue affected at least one student council candidate. Harry Morgan, a student at Pembroke College and candidate for Osney and St Thomas, told Cherwell that he was unable to vote because he wasn’t listed on the register despite applying via the University. “I saw my name on the ballot papers, but they didn’t give me one”, he added.
Former St Anne’s college student and successful Green candidate for Holywell, Alfie Davis, told Cherwell that they had experienced a similar issue whilst a student after assuming the University had registered them correctly.
Other students were registered to vote by the University under their specific accommodation block rather than their college address, including for on-site accommodation, which also caused further confusion at polling stations. A student at Somerville explained how students in her accommodation building were initially turned away because polling station staff searched for them under the college address rather than their block. She told Cherwell: “It’s the kind of technicality that would have made me think the mistake was on my end, if it hadn’t happened to literally everyone in my building.”
In a statement to Cherwell, the University spokesperson notes that some students were registered at their specific term-time accommodation address rather than a “central college site”, which “may have led to confusion about the correct polling station”. Several students were ultimately able to vote after contacting electoral services and confirming they had been registered under their accommodation block rather than their college site.
Multiple students at Somerville said when they contacted electoral services, after being prompted by election workers at polling stations, they were informed that students living in halls are removed from the register annually because of “high turnover” of accommodation.
In a statement to Cherwell, Oxford City Council confirmed that removing students from the electoral register is “normal practice” and said it had done so “for decades”. The Council said students living in university accommodation are typically removed from the register during the annual canvass in autumn, usually around October, on account of the complexity of student registration and the high turnover of addresses. It added that the introduction of Individual Electoral Registration in 2014 meant Electoral Registration Officers in university towns were expected to “delete students from the register and require them to re-register”. The Council added that it works closely with the University and Oxford Brookes during the annual registration process, including receiving lists of eligible students living in halls and contacting those who have not registered independently.
However, Cherwell found that Oxford City Council’s ‘Register to vote and the annual canvass’ webpage does not explicitly state within its student registration guidance that students living in halls must re-register annually. A link on the page directing users to Electoral Commission student guidance was also non-functional at the time of publication. Whilst moving addresses is listed as a requirement for re-registering, this does not highlight that moving between on-site college accommodation buildings constitutes a change of address requiring re-registration.
Guidance published by the Electoral Commission and the National Union of Students similarly refers to students needing to re-register if they change address, but does not make clear that students will be removed from the register on an annual basis.
The University spokesperson told Cherwell: “We are reviewing how information and guidance can be made clearer for students in future elections.”
