Today is national register to vote day yet more than half a million people in south west London area alone are not registered to vote.
According to anti-fascist charity Hope Not Hate, with only 90 days left until voting for the general election, an overwhelming 7.5m people of voting age are not registered for the 2015 general election.
Lambeth Green Party have taken to Facebook to try to encourage up to 30,000 unregistered local residents to join the electorate.
Jonathan Bartley, Streatham Green parliamentary candidate, said: “The Facebook invite and campaign drive we’re arranging is one part of addressing this problem, but it will require a dedicated campaign from Lambeth Council to ensure that all unregistered voters respond in time.”
The unsettled reaction from the electorate to the Eurozone financial crisis led to the first British coalition government since WWII being formed in 2010.
With the growing Green Party and new political kid on the block UKIP both gaining traction, the general election is a crucial one for more established parties to shore up support.
So why are record numbers of people not voting?
According to Hope Not Hate, the changes in this election as to the way people register to vote is the answer, as new system Individual Electorate Registration (IER) has been brought in.
South West Trade Union Congress is also encouraging workplace reps to ensure their members are registered, launching a workplace campaign to sign up people in the region.
South West TUC Regional Secretary Nigel Costley said: “We urgently need to encourage people, especially the younger generation, to exercise their democratic rights as citizens. It’s incumbent on all of us to do everything we can to boost registration levels and turnout.”
The Electoral Commission found after the 2010 election that six million qualified voters were not on the electoral register, averaging 9,230 people in each parliamentary constituency.
The commission also found that four in ten missing voters wrongly thought they were already registered and 45% of 18-24-year-olds were not also registered.
