Take our expat voting survey

We would like to hear whether you are registered to vote in the UK - and if not, why not?

WE have received a lot of emails following our item last week about the low registration figures for British expats to vote in the UK - now the Electoral Commission has asked for our help in finding the reasons for it.

Responses include the fact that previous postal votes have arrived too late to be counted, disconnection with a system which ties expats to the constituency of their last UK home rather than to a dedicated MP for expats (the French, by comparison, have 11 dedicated expat MPs) and no interest in the UK.

Several respondents said they did not know they could still vote and many were unaware that they would need to be registered to take part in any potential referendum on the UK leaving the EU. The UK Electoral Commission has asked for an overview of the responses to help with their campaign into improving voter registration.

If you would like to add your view on why so few British expats register to vote (voting is only possible for those who have not been out of the UK for more than 15 years) please click to answer here (it’s a quick survey that takes just a minute to do and is anonymous). The results will be passed to the UK Electoral Commission.

Click here to take survey