Britain failed to enrol as many expats as it had hoped to vote in the recent European and local elections.
The Electoral Commission had campaigned to add 25,000 expats to register to vote, but ultimately only 7,079 did in the UK.
Its efforts involved advertisements on expat radio stations, and teaming up with the Foreign Office, groups such as Votes for Expat Brits, and political parties’ overseas networks.
More registration forms were downloaded by expats than in previous European elections, but far fewer were returned than hoped.
The whole business of registering was deemed an “onerous task” by the Electoral Commission.
Hopeful voters had to print the forms, fill them in, get a countersignature from another non-family British passport holder, and post them to the UK.
The Commission recognised that expats may have chosen to vote in their EU countries of residence rather than in the UK.
As of June 10, the process changed to allow expats to register entirely online. But voting online “will not be in place for the next general election,” according to the Commission.
“The introduction of online registration will make this process a great deal more straightforward in future,” said the commission, which will launch another publicity drive targeting expats ahead of the General Election next May.
Conservatives Abroad is pressing the Coalition Government to abolish a controversial rule that bans expats from voting once they have lived away from Britain for 15 years.
Paul Barnes, the Conservatives Abroad head of campaigns, said: “Britons living abroad are entitled to vote in UK general and European elections for up to 15 years after leaving the UK. Many other countries, including 23 out of 28 EU member states, allow their expats to vote without any time limit. Every Briton should have a vote.”
Mr Barnes said that around two million British expats are believed to be ineligible to vote, either because they are too young or because they are barred by the 15-year rule.
