Record number of new voters register ahead of UK election

A record number of new voters in the UK registered to vote earlier this month, with Bite the Ballot coordinating Britain’s second annual National Voter Registration Day (NVRD) on Thursday February 5.

During the week of February 2 – 8, a world-record breaking 441,5000 people registered to vote, including 166,000 on NVRD. This makes it the most successful voter registration campaign – ever.

Attitude has partnered with Bite the Ballot to campaign about the importance of registering to vote, with a variety of columnists sharing their stories in previous weeks – and more to come.

Here’s what you may have missed:

Attitude editor Matthew Todd has shared his own journey to political engagement as a young gay man in the 1990s, realising that his local MP actively voted against LGBT issues – and that he had the power to help vote him out.

Respected gay rights activist Peter Tatchell offered some words of inspiration for all those wavering about whether or not to register: “Let’s elect the gayest government in history!”

YouTuber Jazza John offered a warning to any fellow Gen Yers thinking they could blissfully ignore the upcoming elections: “If you don’t do politics, politics will do you.”

This week, Young Labour’s LGBT Officer Jack Falkingham argued that it “doesn’t take a Harvey Milk to realise we must still stand up and be counted.”

“Did you have great LGBT sex and relationship education at school? Or, do you always feel comfortable walking down the street, never mind holding hands with a partner? No, me neither. The fact is we may have won lots of legal victories, but we are still not equal. I’ll be voting in May to make sure those changes can be won,” he wrote.

With less than three months to go until the 2015 UK General Election, now’s the time to register to vote! Head to Bite the Ballot for all the details.