Incorrect details on voter registration form- registration officer incompetence

[markyT]

I have just recieved my yearly voter registration form, it (incorrectly) states that no voters were registered at my address last year. I have contacted my registration officer stating that I refuse to add to and sign a form stating that no one was registered last year as to do so would leave me potentially criminally liable on 2 counts:

I would be admitting liability to an offence last year by not registering to vote.

I would be signing a form stating that no voters were registered at my address (returning a form with innacurate / false information).

I have requested that they send me a form with the correct details on it.

My question is: can this be construed as a refusal to register to vote? Am I on safe ground?

I cherish my right to vote and wish to be registered, but will not sign a form which I know to be false.

Please do not leave a response along the lines of: "there's no point voting" or "all politicians are the same". These debates are best kept on the pages of the Daily Mail.

Many thanks

[boxtops]

What went wrong here, then - did you fill in the annual voter registration form last year? (we've just had ours for next year). I'm a bit obsessive about keeping things like this so I always keep a photocopy before I send it back - if you'd done that, you could prove it to the council.

Also - why do you say it's the registration officer who's incompetent? - perhaps the form never arrived in the post, it might not be the records officer's fault at all.

Can't you just add your names for this year, and cross out the part saying "none registered" and write "error" against it?

Did you not have local elections in May this year, did you not receive voting cards which show you WERE on?

[markyT]

I voted in all of the elections last year, whilst registered at this address... now they say I wasn't registered... sounds a little bit incompetent to me

[THECORBYLOON]

If you voted last year then you were on the Electoral Roll. Now, there is the possibility that you were included on that Roll in error (if no-one was recorded as living at your address) so for them to produce an amended form would be false would it not? Mistakes happen so why not just accept that fact, fill in the form and stop worrying about it.

[factor-fiction]

I really can't see there being an issue if you simply add the names and, if you think it might help, add a note on the form saying these names were in fact on the register last year as you received polling cards

[gb1959]

As far as I am aware it is not an offence to refuse to vote or refuse to register to vote. On the registration papers I think it clearly states if any of the information on the form is incorrect, please correct and send back. If you were sent a voting card this year then you are already registered to vote at your address. Whatever you do you are not committing any offence - are you perhaps getting mistaken with the census, which apparently states it is an offence not to complete and return it, though this yet has to be challenged in court?