Only five out of over 500 students living in the Pavilions student accommodation have registered to vote for the General Elections on May 6th, a source with access to the Lincoln database of the Electoral Commission informed The Linc.

According to the same source, SU’s president Chris Charnley has not registered to vote in the Lincoln elections either, despite spearheading a campaign to get Lincoln students to register. Charnley denied the allegation and said: “I have indeed registered to vote, I did sometime ago. I’m away in London on May 6th, working, which has meant I have had to register for a postal vote.”

Students at the Courts accommodation, which Charnley has previously bemoaned for not being willing to use the right channels to complain about their living standards, are said to have registered to vote only in “low double digits”, the source claims.

These allegations cast a shadow over the SU’s campaign to get Lincoln students to vote against an increase in tuition fees, which took place across the Brayford campus over the last few weeks. The SU used Facebook and posters across several university buildings to promote their campaign.

Charnley denied that the SU’s campaign did not engage enough students. He said: “The Voter Registration campaign went well, it was great to see that a large number of students had already registered to vote.” However, Charnley did not explain how he quantified “a large number of students,” and said: “I have nothing further to say on the matter.”

The registration deadline for the General Election was April 20th. The NUS reported earlier this week that there was a “late rush” in young people registering to vote ahead of this deadline, with over 50,000 forms downloaded hours before the closing time.

3 thought on “Few Lincoln students register to vote?”
  1. I think some students do not understand politics, I mean why would they? If they do not have parents who watch the news much and do not study politics, how can they know. It should be taught in schools about how important voting is.

  2. While I’m sure there is much lethargy amongst students with regards to voting, I would suggest that more have registered to vote than suggested.

    The articles states:
    “a source with access to the Lincoln database of the Electoral Commission informed The Linc.”
    This (the Lincoln database) doesn’t take into account the students who may have registered at home, and plan to vote either via post, proxy or simply travelling back for the day, to vote in a constituency they, in most cases, have more experience of and thus interest in.

    Furthermore, I have seen at least three polling cards just within my apartment at Pavilions (mine included) – so I suggest that a total of just five seems somewhat unlikely.

  3. Hi Philip, thanks for your comment.

    We’re currently trying to verify the exact amount of students registered to vote in Lincoln – this being the focus of the speculation following our source’s tip-off.

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