Eligible UK EU referendum voters

Op-Ed: With the devil as always in the detail who is eligible to vote in the upcoming UK EU in or out referendum is crucial.

If you have registered to vote in the UK you will be eligible to vote in the EU referendum. You do not have to register again.

But there are some voting restrictions in the EU referendum which will take place June 23, 2016.

The government denied appeals to lower the age of voting for this referendum even though that happened in Scotland for that country's independence referendum.

Scotland lowered the age just for referendum voting to 16 but the eligible age in the UK EU referendum is 18; whether that move was a good idea is debatable. As young people have in many ways more to win or lose on the result of the EU referendum. It is after all their future that is at stake.

Overseas voters will be allowed a vote in the EU ref if they meet the following criteria:

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If you are a UK citizen living abroad, you 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.

If you have not registered to vote in this year’s elections, including the EU referendum, you still have time.

The cut-off date for registering to be able to vote in the UK EU referendum is Tuesday June 7, 2016.

According to the Telegraph "Just over 4.5 million Britons live abroad, with approximately 1.3 million of them in Europe, according to the United Nations." They mainly live in France, Spain and Ireland although there will be pockets of expats in countries such as Portugal and Italy.

There are claims that expats in the EU may be forced to return to the UK if the country votes to leave the European Union but that is not proved and condemned by some as scaremongering. Likewise Britain has various EU citizens living and in some cases working in the UK.

But while eligible expat voters may be having their say on the future of British EU membership changes at home have resulted in thousands disappearing from electoral registers. "An estimated 800,000 people have dropped off the electoral register since the government introduced changes to the system, with students in university towns at highest risk of being disenfranchised, the Guardian has learned."

It is worth checking online if you are registered to vote and the latest guidelines for ensuring that you are. You can do both if you follow this link.

However the UK may also dish out a fine if you are asked to register to vote and do not, unless there are extenuating circumstances. Like so much in 2016 the goalposts are being shifted at record speed and keeping up is tricky.

EU resident voters in the referendum can vote by post or appoint a proxy. Similar options are also available for UK residents.

Election and Voting information at the Electoral Commission
Register to vote at this link

Via the Independent summer 2015