There appears to be growing concern in the UK that, from recent figures, only about 1% of the elegible expat electorate are actually voting. Some of this is due to lack of knowledge (in some cases that they are even allowed to vote), but a lot is due to apathy and the perceived difficulty with actually registering.
For me this is simple, as I now share my parents-in-laws’ UK address, and, as they have been efficiently sorting their postal votes for years (living 6 months of the year in Florida), I have been added to their forms. But if I had to get around to doing it all myself, I wonder if I would actually bother.

“Last year, almost 200,000 Britons left the UK to live overseas, joining 5.5 million British expats. Recent figures from the Electoral Commission showed that only 15,000, or less than one per cent of the 2.5 million potential overseas electorate, were registered to vote.”

Concern among the political parties is such that Conservatives Abroad have now launched a Web site to try and address the problem of what they see as millions of lost votes. Check out: www.dontleaveyourvoteathome.com

It is generally now recognised that the current process is far too complicated and that, even if you manage to register, postal ballets often arrive too late for you to cast your vote. Other countries, such as Australia have far simpler methods, and moves are afoot to reform the whole process in the UK.

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