Thousands of lost voters in Barnet at the general election

My son is 17 and will be 18 before the general election. Traditionally a household electoral registration form was sent out in the Autumn identifying those in the household  who were on the electoral register and allowing you to add in someone who was 16 or 17. In September/October 2013 I duly added my son's name to the form. In the Autumn 2014 they changed the system - this is not a Barnet idea, it is a Government change. This form omitted my son's details so I rang Barnet who said they were working through the new system and it would get picked up.

With less than 100 days to the election I rang them again and found that my son's details are not on the register - because he isn't 18 yet and he has to actively register on line with his national insurance number. Is he going to do that without prompting  - definitely not. Does he know where his national insurance number is definitely not.

I wonder how many other teenagers for which this will be their first general election are going to miss out on their vote. Are they told about the need to register their vote at school - no. Have we had any leaflets through the door about it - no.

Expect thousands of teenagers in Barnet and in every other constituency to lose their vote at this election, something which could alter the make up of our next government.

If you have a teenager who hasn't registered to vote and will be 18 by the time of the general election make sure they go here https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote and register.