A Brexiting Hypocrisy
By 
The United Kingdom votes in the European Union referendum in 13 days. The deadline for voters not on the electoral roll at their current address to register was Tuesday. Only, in the hours leading up to the midnight deadline, the system crashed. Now, if the Republican Party was in charge, one might naturally assume that this was intentional; one would certainly not expect the deadline to be extended. However, for all their manifest faults, the present Government of the UK is officially in the remain camp, so they extended the deadline by 48 hours.
This matters, for two reasons. First, in the run-in to the general election last year, the Government changed the system of voter registration. Under the old system, a single person could register an entire household in one go. This made registration simple for a lot if not most people, although, in theory, also made it vulnerable to electoral fraud. Yet, according to the Electoral Commission’s own report from January of last year, “We do not believe it is likely that fraud has been attempted in more than a handful of wards in any particular local authority area.” Basically, as in the United States, it doesn’t really exist. The new system requires each individual to directly register themselves to vote. This does not seem to be a big deal, and it remains simpler to register to vote in the UK when contrasted to the US. However, simple logic dictates that voters will be lost from the rolls. According to research published by the campaign group Hope Not Hate and the Labour Party several months before the 2015 general election, nearly one million people have vanished from the electoral rolls. Young voters are significantly more likely to be screwed by the new system. They’re less settled geographically, and whenever one moves, one has to re-register at their new address. The electoral commission admitted that certain demographics will be systematically affected by the change, specifically private renters, young adults . . . and students. Under the old system, students could be registered by their universities en mass based on their halls of residence. No longer; now it’s up to each individual student to ensure that they are registered.
For the EU referendum, this would not matter if there was no systematic relationship between age and probability of voting remain. However, there is, and it’s a very strong relationship, and a relationship that is only slightly mediated by education. “The young, whatever their age education, are very largely against Brexit; among the old, the intensity of their anti-EU sentiment varies substantially according to their qualifications.” (“Age” is in the original, but given the context it’s probably a typo; regardless, look at the data which tell the story).
So, the young are significantly more likely to vote remain, more likely to have to continually monitor their registration status, and the system crashes under the weight of people trying to change their registration at the last minute. The Government sensibly extended the deadline 48 hours, because democracy is a good thing.
Those in favor of leaving the EU should applaud this decision. Their three arguments for leaving are unchecked immigration — that Britain is being overrun by nefarious forces from beyond the borders stealing jobs, crushing the health service, and causing all manner of mayhem. Because they’re different. The second is the money, and how much the EU costs Britain (which they all claim with a straight face will be invested in the NHS and those in need). The third? Sovereignty and democracy. To quote Boris Johnson, “I’m telling you that if we vote on June 23 and take back control of our country, our economy and our democracy then we can prosper and thrive and flourish as never before.” Michael Gove also weighs in with ” . . . though we are outside the euro we are still subject to an unelected EU commission which is generating new laws every day . . .”.
Democracy! A key component of democracy is, you know, voting, and allowing as many as possible a means to cast their vote with minimal obstruction. It’s natural to assume that the Brexit camp would be completely supportive of extending the registration deadline 48 hours, to ensure that as many as possible, especially the itinerant young, get the chance to democratically express their preference on the most important question facing the entire UK in a generation or two.
To quote the inimitable Lana Kane, “nooooooope”.
A legal challenge to extending the registration deadline is under consideration.
Why?
Because duh. “BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins said many Leave campaigners see the deadline extension as a “fix” because they think people signing up late will be younger and therefore more likely to support the EU. The official leave campaign – Vote Leave, in which Mr Banks plays no part – has said the government is trying to register as many likely Remain voters as possible, but stopped short of suggesting that it would consult lawyers.”
The act of registering a voter is neutral. We do not know how these late registrants will vote. However, because political science, we have a pretty damned good idea. Apparently, the Brexit camp is smart enough to have figured this out as well.
But this does make their paean to democracy appear as unmitigated bullshit.
UPDATE: This in The Independent.
