Registering to vote is easy – this is what you do

This year’s general election is on 7 May. If you want to vote, you need to have registered by 20 April. This is what you need to do –

How to register

You can register online (to do so, click here) or by post (to download a form, click here).

You have to provide –

• name
• date of birth
• national insurance number
• address
• email address

Who can register?

• British citizens aged 16 or over
• Irish, Commonwealth or EU citizens resident in the UK

So who can vote?

Just because you’ve registered to vote, it doesn’t mean you’re eligible to vote on 7 May. To vote, you have to be –

• 18 or over on polling day
• a British citizen, a qualifying Commonwealth citizen or a citizen of the Irish Republic
• not subject to any legal incapacity to vote

And another thing

• there are separate registration forms for public servants posted overseas
• you register using a different form if you live in Northern Ireland
• in previous elections, the head of a household was responsible for registering everyone at an address. From 2015 people register individually

The Electoral Commission has says that 30% of people aged 18-24 have not registered to vote yet.https://t.co/91NqHV8VRB Come on guys!

— Jon Snow (@jonsnowC4) February 5, 2015