Rotherham voters rush to sign up

A NATIONAL surge in registering to vote has been reflected in Rotherham, statistics showed this week.

The electoral offices had more than double amount of late additions than for the European polls last June.

And a spokeswoman for Rotherham Borough Council said the phones had been “red hot” before the final deadline on Tuesday.

The first-ever live TV debate is thought to have had a major effect in boosting interest—especially among 18 to 25-year-olds.

And this has been the first time that the deadline has been after the campaign

Figures for Rotherham show that 1,370 voters have registered since March 11.

During the same period before last year’s election, there were 711 additions to the list.

The council spokeswoman said: “There is always more interest in General Elections than European ones, but we have been very busy with requests since April 1, and especially on Monday (19).

“As well as last minute registrations, there were also calls from residents checking that they were on the list.”

Jennie Watson, chairman of the Electoral Commission, said: “The debate did have an impact, we did see a spike with 7,000 forms a day being downloaded.

“This is the first General Election where people could register to vote during the campaign. So the whole fact of registration itself becomes part of the election cycle.

“That means that people who have just started to take engage in politics and the idea that there’s an election, we’re able much more successfully to tackle to myths.

“It’s much more effective to do that in the election campaign rather than a month-and-a-half beforehand, which was the case in the past.”

Sixteen hopefuls will contest Rotherham’s three parliamentary seats on May 6, after the official list of nominations was released on Tuesday.

The Labour old guard of John Healey, Denis MacShane and Kevin Barron—with a combined 57 years’ in office—will again stand for re-election.

Tory challengers come in the form of Michelle Donelan, Jackie Whiteley and Lynda Donaldson in Wenworth and Dearne, Rotherham and Rother Valley respectively.

Current RMBC members Cllrs Donaldson, Peter Thirlwall and Will Blair are aiming to add a Westminster seat to their political portfolio.

UKIP trio Tina Dowdall, Caven Vines and John Wilkinson are candidates for both the general and borough elections, as well as the BNP’s Marlene Guest.