Go online or text for your right to vote

Go online or text for your right to vote

Technology-savvy residents are using the web and text messages to tell the council who is eligible to vote in their households – and saving the council money too.

Crawley Borough Council is reminding residents to fill in their electoral registration form so they are eligible to vote.

Every household will have received a form which needs to be completed and either sent back to the council or confirmed by phone, text or the internet.

Only then will the eligible people living at that address be added to the

2011 Register of Electors.

The most cost effective way for the council to carry out this annual process is for forms to be returned electronically via www.register-online.co.uk, via text to 07624 802252 or by automated phone by calling 0808 1617640.

In just a week, the council has had more than 12,000 forms returned. Of this

figure:

. 2,546 have been returned via the internet

. 524 have been sent back by text

. 2,059 have been completed using the automated phone system

. 7,000 have sent in the post.

You have to be registered in order to vote and often to open a bank account or obtain a mortgage or other financial services.

Crawley Borough Council has elections in May 2011. Tilgate and Maidenbower residents will need to return their forms before September 22 to be able to vote in the Crawley Borough Council Tilgate Ward by-election and West Sussex County Council Maidenbower Ward by-election. Both elections will be held on Thursday October 7.

Residents are reminded that even if there are no changes to the eligible voters at the property the form must either be returned, confirmed over the phone or via the internet address on the form.

For more information call Crawley Borough Council’s Electoral Registration Team on 01293 438346 or 01293 438705.

How to register by freephone or the internet

If all of the printed details on your voter registration form are correct, you can register by telephone or the internet.

Telephone

1. Dial 0808 1617640

2. When asked, key in the 10-digit unique reference number on your

registration form

3. When asked key in 0

4. You will now be told that you have registered no changes. You will

be asked to confirm this by pressing 0

5. Your registration is complete and you should not return the

registration form.

Internet

1. Visit www.register-online.co.uk

2. Key in the 10-digit unique reference number and password, which are

printed on your registration form

3. You will now be asked to confirm that there are no changes by

pressing the confirm button

4. You can print a confirmation of your registration.

Text

1. Text your 10-digit unique reference number to 07624 802252

2. You will be sent a return text confirming your registration

3. Your network will make its normal charge for sending texts.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 6th, 2010 at 16:20 and is filed under News Bulletins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.