I've been waiting a long time to read this online

[cromwell]

Well well. 1.5 million people have allegedly applied to vote in the referendum who weren't previously registered.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... t-75807908

So as the received wisdom is that it is young people who are registering and young people support Remain, this "late surge of applications" should help Remain.

Am I being too cynical if I smell a fix coming on?

[pederito1]

I shall be very surprised if the "Remain" vote is not rigged in some way.

[Workingman]

How very undemocratic, getting people who are 'eligible' to vote to 'register' in order for them to take part in the biggest decision in many of their lives.

Oh wait, nobody is 'forcing' them to register, it is just a suggestion; and it is forecast/predicted/guessed at/hoped that quite a few will take up the offer.

Well blow me down.

[cromwell]

I honestly hope that you are right WM.

It does show how much more cynical people have become though. Growing up I wouldn't have believed it possible that vote rigging could occur in the UK. After Tony Blair and various postal voting scandals, it's much easier to believe these days.

[Suff]

Getting people to vote is always a good thing. Even if they don't vote for what you want. That engagement of people who never voted before totally energised and changed Scottish politics. Not only in the referendum and the following parliamentary election, but also in the Scottish parliament elections following.

I don't care, this is good whatever the result.

What is not so good is that we already know there are illegal activities going on in our electoral system and that those who are doing it are unlikely to be for Brexit. So, if it does come down to remain winning; making a perfectly valid claim of illegal activity is going to be turned into sour grapes. If the vote is really close it's going to be explosive.

Let's stick to being annoyed with the real shenanigans. More voters is always good.

[cromwell]

This is part of the shenanigans Suff.

Half a million people try to register to vote in one day, at the last minute? Really? 1.65 million voters supposedly registering just before the deadline?

The deadline is there for a good reason, to try and check if these applications are genuine. How are you going to check if the applications of half a million voters are genuine, in two weeks? Let alone 1.65 million.

You can't. The resources aren't there to do it and believe me, the political will is most certainly not there to do it. The government site to register voters crashes 90 minutes before deadline and they want another 24 hours to register voters?

If this late surge presents the British establishment with the result that they desire, will they check the legality of these votes afterwards? Will they hell.

Sorry, I'm crying foul on this.

[Workingman]

Conspiracy theories and only one side benefits, tsk.

The system in use yesterday is the same one I used last year after constantly receiving and filling in postal forms. It asks for name, address, postcode and NI number - it is not a vote. All of the information given can be checked against any number of databases in the blink of an eye.

However, if people left it till the very last minute to register and failed then that is their tough luck - it's like missing the bus. Live with it, there will be another election in due time.

[Workingman]

IMHO it was wrong to extend the deadline.

To extend it by two days when the site only crashed for a few hours looks more than dodgy. I understand that a legal challenge could take place.

[Suff]

Yep it's pretty stupid isn't it. If it went down for a few hours, they could have clearly announced that it would be up for, say, 4 hours a day or two later and let people get the time they lost.

This way they've just ensured that the result, if close, is in doubt.

Why don't t they ever remember that?

[Workingman]

Apparently some 430,000 people registered during the extended period.

That could be problematic if the result is within the ~900,000 mark, which is not out of the question.