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Voter registration and engagement in CLD settings
Community learning and development (CLD) practitioners can support democratic engagement in a range of ways. One way can be helping young people, adult learners and community groups to better understand and take part in democratic processes.
This page presents information and learning resources which CLD practitioners may find useful to support learners and groups to explore voter registration and engagement, particularly in the run up to the next UK General Election.
Why does this matter to CLD?
Voting or not voting is of course a matter of individual choice in the UK. Evidence shows though that there are clear barriers to registering to vote for some people. For example, people from BME backgrounds are a less likely to be registered. Young people are also less likely to be registered than older people.
Important points
The next UK General Election is on Thursday 4 July 2024. You must be registered on the Electoral Register to use your vote. You only need to register once, not for every election. But you do need to register again if you change your: name, address, or nationality.
British, Irish and qualifying Commonwealth citizens can vote in UK Parliament elections.
The rules for Council, Scottish and UK elections are different. The voting age for UK General Elections is 18. You can register to vote in UK Parliament elections from the age of 16.
All voters will now need to show photographic ID at the Polling Station. This is a change in UK law since the last UK General Election in 2019.
Changes to the constituency boundaries for UK elections have been made since the last General Election (in 2019). For some people, this means that your constituency and perhaps your MP will have changed.
The resources have been developed by the Electoral Commission to support learning opportunities around voter registration and engagement.
Learning resources for voting in the UK 2024 General Election will help you navigate the resources and find ones that work best in CLD settings.
The Electoral Register lists the names and addresses of everyone who's registered to vote. You need to be on it to be able to vote in elections and referendums.
You can register to vote when you are:
- aged 14 or older for Scottish Parliament and council elections
- aged 16 or older for UK Parliament elections
Constituency boundaries in the UK were revised in 2023. A new set of boundaries for Westminster constituencies will be used at the next UK general election.
Find your parliamentary constituency to learn more about the new boundaries.
Democracy Classroom is a shared hub of resources, training opportunities and events, created by a partnership of non-partisan organisations working on democracy, education and youth.
This links to the CLD Standards Council ethics on self-determination, respecting learners to make their own choices, empowerment and increasing the ability of individuals to influence issues that affect them.
Improvements in Equality, Diversion and Inclusion
Quality Indicator 1.2 asks:
How effective are we in taking positive steps to overcome structural and systemic barriers to learning for all learners and communities?
How well do we ensure that decision making groups and structures are fully representative of people who are affected by persistent and systemic inequalities including those with protected characteristics?
How well do we meet our requirements to be proactive in working towards the elimination of discrimination and prejudice, to ensure participants are clear about their rights and entitlements, and to advance equality of opportunity?
- How does our CLD practice offer opportunities for learners and groups to engage in democratic life?
- How well do we understand the potential barriers to voter registration and participation faced by some groups, including ethnic minorities, young people, and vulnerable learners and groups?
- How successfully does our CLD practice help learners and groups to overcome and/or challenge barriers to voter registration and participation?
- How well do we monitor our approaches to ensure they are effective in reducing barriers to participation?
- Young Scot : Voting
- Aberdeen Youth Movement | Twitter, Instagram | Linktree in partnership with Aberdeen City Council made 3 video clips for the general election with young voters in mind by implementing a “youth lens” model. The clips are focused on
- How to register to vote in 30 seconds
- How to take the perfect ID photo
- What ID is acceptable.
Elections 2024 - get ready with AYM - YouTube
All the clips were scripted, storyboarded, filmed and edited by young people for young people. They are happy for these clips to be shared as with being youth friendly they are importantly people friendly
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