Welcome from Martin Burroughs, Oldham MBC
LARIA North West welcomed 40 delegates to its spring event in Manchester to hear about Community Engagement and the Individual Electoral Registration (IER) experience. Delegates heard from Professor Matt Henn about non-voting patterns by young people and his research into engaging young people in the democratic process.
See more details on the project website
Prof Matt Henn (Nottingham Trent University) talks about why young people don’t vote
John Bradley spoke about mis-matches in the ‘dry-run’ of matching Electoral Registration and DWP data and how this related to issues of ethnicity, household tenure and student areas.
John Bradley (Manchester CC) explains the issues of targeting hard to reach communities in Manchester
Charlotte Snelling explained the issues found in the UK Electoral Commission’s research on under-registration and the proposed areas of activity to encourage engagement and maximise registration.
• Confirmation dry run (looks at match rates and areas where more green/more red matches etc., and also survey results from the electoral services staff going through the process.
• Analysis of under-registered groups and drivers of LA registration rates
N.B. Cabinet Office also commissioned some research looking at barriers to registrations amongst URGs and also the transition to IER
Charlotte Snelling (Cabinet Office) speaks about maximising registration for IER
The challenges facing Manchester City Council were described by Lesley Spencer while Peter Richards detailed how the Council is using communications to promote proposed activities in the IER process.
Lesley Spencer (Manchester CC) describes the IER experience in Manchester
Peter Richards (Manchester CC) reports on how Manchester is using communications in the IER process