Register to vote | Havant Borough Council

Register of Electors 2023

Formal notice on the publication of Revised Register of Electors 2023 can be viewed here.

Verification Number 2023/2024

Publication of the verification number can be seen here.

It is important you are on the electoral register so you can vote in upcoming elections and referendums. If you are not on the electoral register you will be unable to vote.

Registering to vote can be easily done online, you will need your date of birth and national insurance number and the whole process should take about 5 minutes.

To verify your identity, the data you provide will be processed by the Individual Electoral Registration Digital Service which is managed by the Cabinet Office.

As part of this process your data will be shared with the Department of Work and Pensions and your local Electoral Registration Office, this is covered in the register to vote privacy notice.

Voter ID

From May 2023 you will be required to show an official form of photographic identification (ID) when you vote in person at a polling station. Further details can be found here.

Who is eligible to vote?

To vote in a general or local government election you must:

Be registered to vote
Be 18 or over on the day of the election
Be a British, Irish, Commonwealth or EU citizen
Be registered at an address in the area you want to vote in (local election only)
Not be legally excluded from voting

As long as no-one objects to your name appearing on the register of electors for the address you give, we will add you to it when we update it.

We update the register of electors on the first working day of each month.

EU citizens

EU citizens will no longer automatically be entitled to register, vote or stand for election. Two groups of EU citizens will keep these rights;

EU citizens with retained rights, who were living in the UK before 1 January 2021 (before the UK left the EU).
Under the proposed changes, EU citizens who were living in the UK before the end of the EU Withdrawal Agreement Implementation Period (up until 1 January 2021) would keep their right to vote and stand in elections
EU citizens who have arrived in the UK since 1 January 2021 would have these rights, where the UK Government has negotiated reciprocal agreements with EU Members States to allow its citizens living in the UK to vote, in return for the same right for UK citizens living in that country.

So far these agreements have been made with:

Spain
Portugal
Luxembourg
Poland

The changes will not affect citizens of the Republic of Ireland or citizens of Commonwealth nations.

These change will apply to all local elections and referendums in England, all elections for council and combined authority mayors, and Police and Crime Commissioner elections and are expected to take place by spring 2024.

Dual nationality residents - would use highest level nationality to register.

Overseas voter

UK citizens living abroad can apply to be an overseas voter. You must have been registered to vote in the UK in the last 15 years and be eligible to vote in UK Parliamentary general elections and European Parliamentary elections.

If you were too young to register when you left the UK, you can still register as an overseas voter. You can do this if your parent or guardian was registered to vote in the UK, as long as you left the UK no more than 15 years ago.

Voting as a student

If you are voting as a student, you may be able to register to both your home and university addresses.

It is a criminal offence to vote twice in a UK general election.

Even if you are registered in two areas, at home and at university, you can only vote once at a general election.