London Borough of Harrow

To analyse how we increase the number of people registering to vote and the number of people exercising their right to vote utilising technology.

This includes investigating how an authenticated account can be utilised to update the annual canvass and be used to encourage people to vote at election time, especially younger and underrepresented groups.

In Harrow, 12% of residents are not registered to vote, a figure that is comparable with other Local Authorities in London. It is time-consuming and costly to encourage people to register, especially at annual canvass whereby the Council spends in excess of £100,000.

Local Elections see a turnout of between 40%-50% of registered voters. This figure is considerably lower than the 60%-70% turnout at a General Election.

There will be financial savings through fewer resources during canvassing and reduction in associated paperwork, storage, scanning and postage, if captured digitally. This amounts to £120,000 to £150,000 at Harrow.

The turnout for General Elections will also potentially benefit from this solution.