Nick Clegg signals government set to drop proposal to make electoral registration voluntary

Answering questions in Deputy Prime Minister Question Time this afternoon, Nick Clegg said that he is “minded to change” the proposals currently out for consultation that would make electoral registration voluntary following the concerns expressed by the Electoral Commission and others.

Good news.

He also reiterated his support for providing returning officers with the necessary resources to check all postal votes in future. (At the moment, the law requires returning officers to check the personal identifiers given on at least 20% of postal votes though many check 100%.) All good news.

UPDATE: To explain in more detail – it is the proposal that people who do not wish to join an electoral register should be given a simple ‘tick-box’ option to avoid being ‘chased up’ during the following 12 months which Nick Clegg was signalling the government would drop once the official consultation closes.