Thetownend.com

I have had several letters through my door in envelopes saying, "Not a circular, must be read," but that sends up a red flag and means it's definably going in the bin.

I had a letter a few days ago, which was just a piece of paper with a hand written note on it, so caught my attention. It was not in a envelope and stated that a canvasser came around to collect a completed form, but found i wasn't home. It then says that registering to vote is a legal requirement and if i don't register to vote then i'm liable to be fined up to £1000. Why? 

It goes on to use amusing scare tactics saying that it will affect my ability to get a mortgage, loan, mobile or credit card.

All the government sites, that i found on a quick browse, imply registering to vote is a choice. Words such as, "Reasons why you should register to vote."

So, I don't want to vote and don't plan to, but why is this law and why, seriously, should i bother bowing to these scare tactics?

It is worth being on the Electoral Register even if you don't intend to vote, for Credit Checks and suchlike, but I was pretty sure until you'd posted that it was optional.

i had to return 3 of those things before they received them, god knows i can't afford to be fined by "da man" and was pretty unamused my personal details were being lost

the online facility to register is pathetic also

that's my story :)

i had the same letter, i just filled it in to save any hassle

I had the same thing to not long ago,like someone said it's about being on the electoral register,I did't fill mine in,well thats a lie i tried to do it online but could't as it would't work.

they came around and knocked the door in the end because i forgot,all i had to do was sign it and tell them if anything had changed IE number people of living here.

That's what i was going to do, but i binned all the letters and only have this one delivered by a canvasser. It is just a letter with no forms, so serves me right for binning everything else. :)

The more i'm told i have to do something the less i want to do it, which pains me more knowing i do in fact have to obey the idiots sending me this crap. With the threat of a fine being a reason to stop being so childish, i have now tried to sort it. The trouble is i have none of the details the website needs for security...

Oh well, i'll just have to throw the request for payment of the fine in the bin as well.

I had a note from a canvasser as well. I was just too lazy and couldn't be arsed to send the form back. The threat of a £1000 fine soon put paid to that.

Electoral law in the UK is a mess - not helped by the fact that there are currently 2 systems of registration in use at different times of the year. From December to August registration is optional and based upon individual application forms. For the 3 months September to November it is a household registration form and is not optional - each council is obliged to canvass every household in its area to do a complete audit of the register.

I ignore every letter not addressed to me.  If they can't be bothered to find out my name, I can't be bothered to open their letter.

Its addressed to the present occupier so that it doesn't get re-directed if you have moved away. The current occupants have to fill in the form to confirm who is resident.

Jeez, no wonder council staff get pissed off with the public. Across Wiltshire and Swindon it costs over £250k a year sending reminders to people who can't be assed to fill in a registration form, which is all money that could be spent on potholes or schools.

Nah, fuck them all.  They know where I live, so they can do their job properly and address the letter properly.  When I moved house I told the council, so it's not as if they don't know.

Christ, you really are one of the thick ones.

It is a legal requirement to address it to the present occupier, for the reason explained in my previous post.

You must be right as I clicked on 'post' whilst leaving the entire message box empty. :-[

Haha, potholes or schools. Our council are a bunch of incompetent  cunts who are slowly destroying this town. If i'm wasting their money i'm glad. I'd rather it was wasted because of me than because they've got some budget to waste or decide we need some new roundabouts and speed bumps.

And for me it's not that i can't be arsed, it's that i am intentionally not doing it. I'm childish, but that's my right. And my fun. :)

Sorry about the rant.

As you might guess I work for a council, and I was Electoral Registration Officer for 13 years.

I know the law councils have to work to is shit, but that isn't their fault.

Labour have been promising to reform electoral law since 1995, but all they have done is double the regulations to little effect.

In that case I will open stuff from the council, but everyone else can go stick their head in a pig.

Unfortunately that's the state of everything in our country, improvement by more regulation, paper work and obstacles. It's not just that jobs like yours become harder through regulation, but it's also people like myself being told what to do and what not to do all the time that only exacerbate it. Anything i can do to feel like i'm sticking my fingers up to authority is a nice feeling. And the consequences are immaterial because it's likely providing work for any number of pointless quangos to brainstorm over laws and regs for months on end.

i value my time to fill in two lots of forms and send them back at exactly the same amount, what a coincedence!