UK Voter Registration System Among Hardest of Liberal Democracies

The UK has one of the most difficult voter registration processes among liberal democracies, according to research that examined 62 countries.

- Eleni Courea

Requirements to actively register to vote, meet strict deadlines before polling day and cast a ballot at specific polling stations made the UK a "real outlier internationally", academics at the University of Manchester found.

Labour has been weighing up proposals to introduce automatic voter registration as part of a democracy bill before the next election.

Currently, people in the UK need to register if they want to vote, but under automatic registration the electoral roll would be compiled automatically from other records - for example, those linked to tax or passport data.

Campaigners say the change would enfranchise millions more people, especially those who are younger, poorer and live in privately rented homes.

The requirement to bring voter ID to the polling station, which was introduced by the Conservatives, has been criticised for introducing an extra barrier to voting.