It’s become an accepted truth that in our democracy, only certain types of people vote. The data backs this up, as election after election young people, those from racialised and minoritised ethnicities, migrants, those experiencing poverty and the insecurely housed are less likely to be on the electoral register and to vote. New research from IPPR, funded by the UK Democracy Fund, shows that only “one-half of adults in this country voted at the 2024 general election, the lowest share of the population to vote since universal suffrage”.
Politicians are less likely to prioritise the needs of demographic groups that don’t vote. Democratic inequality underpins all of the other inequalities that face the low voting groups that many funders work with. In fundamental policy areas like health, housing, race, the economy, the environment, education – effective and equitable solutions require the participation of all those affected.
In 2019, a group of funders came together to address this.
In 2019 the UK Democracy Fund was formed, a pooled fund hosted by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. Since the 2019 snap election, the Fund has grown as more funders joined to support the cause of increasing participation in our elections.
For this General Election, we gave ourselves the hefty goal of registering 1 million voters, with a focus on people from low voting demographics. Using our evidence base, we supported an excellent group of grantees to run creative and targeted campaigns to mobilise low voting groups to vote. From large-scale digital campaigns and brand activations, to work in schools, colleges and with universities, to community-level engagement with Black and South Asian voters, to working through mosques, churches and community centres. As a pooled fund we were able to make expert, evidence-led funding decisions, bring new voices into this sector, share learning and fund a wide range of activity suitable for different types of people. Our grantees got people registered, got them ID, and got them voting. We’re proud of the work we have funded, and we know that marginalised people were supported to make their voices heard.
We have brought together a group of civil society organisations who are calling for two significant changes.
Now is the time to build on this impact and call for systemic change to make voting fairer and easier.
The scale of the problem is huge. The Electoral Commission estimated in 2023 that there are up to 8 million eligible voters not on the electoral register.
We’re calling for electoral system reforms to make voting fairer and easier for the long term. We have brought together a group of civil society organisations who are calling for two significant changes:
1) Automatic voter registration
We’re calling on the Government to bring us in line with most democracies around the world and use an automated voter registration system. This echoes the calls of a cross-party select committee of MPs who have called the current system “both ineffective and inefficient”. Automatic voter registration is a simple and cost-effective solution which would undercut many of the inequalities in voter registration.
2) Repealing voter ID
Like me, some of you may have had to set a reminder to bring your ID on polling day this year. Unfortunately for those who don’t have an acceptable form of photographic ID, or didn’t bring one with them, voting on election day was not an option. Across civil society, concerns have been raised that those who are already less likely to vote would be further marginalised by this new rule. The full data from the election is yet to emerge, but early polling shows that 3.2% of those surveyed were turned away from voting due to the photographic ID requirement. We’re asking the new PM to review these requirements and to remove this as a barrier to participation.
What can you do?
A group of civil society organisations have written to the Prime Minister asking him to remove these barriers to democratic participation. You can amplify the call by sharing it to your social media.
If you are a grant-maker, you can also take action to protect our democracy by joining the UK Democracy Fund. Learn more about this collaboration opportunity on the Funders Collaborative Hub.
