Facebook to help get UK residents to the ballot box

Posted on 09 April, 2010 under Blogging with Post a Comment

Everyday we see how powerful Facebook has become over the pass years. Facebook will be encouraging UK users to vote in the General Election 2010 by asking them if they’re registered to do so. Anyone who logs into the social networking service on Saturday 10 April will be redirected to the government registration page if their answer is “no”.

The partnership with the UK Electoral Commission comes in an effort to stop the decline in UK general election turn outs that’s been taking place over the last 100 years. 80% of the voting population went to the ballot boxes in the 1950s whereas that number had fallen to just 61.4% by 2005.

Of particular significance is the poor turn out of the 18-24 age group, of whom just 37% cast their votes at the last time of asking. With 23 million UK users registered on Facebook, and many of them young, the hope is to see a big change in these figures come 6 May. All UK Voters must be registered by the 20th of April, if you are in the UK and haven’t been registered as yet you can do so at About My Vote.

If you are a UK Citizen and living overseas, if you were too young to register when you left the UK, you can still register as an overseas voter so long as your parent or guardian was registered to vote in the UK and you left the UK within the last 15 years.

Share This Article:

Share

Tweet

Leave a Reply