Everything You Need to Know Ahead of the General Election on 4 July

The UK will be holding a general election on Thursday 4 July 2024, where voters choose a candidate to represent their constituency in the UK Parliament’s House of Commons? Voting in a general election is an important democratic right and way of having your say on how the country is governed. To start preparing to vote visit this link where the essential information has been gathered for you.

Key Dates

There are two important deadlines to remember as the election approaches: 18 June is the last day to register to vote, and postal-vote applications close the following day, on 19 June.  

How Can I Register to Vote?

Registering to vote allows you to get on the electoral register so you can vote in elections or referendums. The easiest way to do this is online and this takes around five minutes. This process remains the same whether you plan on voting in person at a polling station, by post, or through a proxy voter.   

After registering, you will receive a poll card just before an election or referendum telling you when to vote and at which polling station. If your home address and term time addresses fall under different local authorities, you may receive two poll cards. However, you can only vote in one place at the general election. Voting more than once in a general election is a criminal offence. 

Who Can Vote?

To register to vote, you must be aged 16 or over (although you cannot vote until you’re 18 years old), and meet one of the following criteria: 

• A UK or Irish citizen? 
• A qualifying Commonwealth citizen living in the UK – a list of qualifying Commonwealth countries can be found here 
• A qualifying EU citizen living in the UK 
• A citizen of Denmark, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal or Spain? 

You can check your eligibility to vote here...  

How Do I Vote?

Voting in Person

You can vote in person on 4 July at your allocated polling station between 7am-10pm and you must provide an accepted form of photo ID to vote.?Find out more about where you can vote in person, and what ID to bring.

Voting by Post 

If you are unable to vote in person, you can vote by post. The deadline for this application is on 19 June at 5pm. You will still need to prove your identity when applying for a postal vote.  

Voting by Proxy 

If you happen to be out of the country on Election Day, you can nominate someone else to vote for you (voting by proxy). To apply by post for a proxy vote, you must get application to your local Electoral Registration Office on 14 June 2024 by 5pm. The application can be found here.

"It's important to all students who are eligible to vote because the issues MP's bring to the National level affects all of us at the local and regional level.

From immigration to cost of living to developing new jobs, these decisions will affect our future. It's especially important, those who are eligible to vote do so in this general election because many students, such as EU and our International students, aren't eligible to vote, making your voice even more powerful and important to represent yourself and other King's students.

Go out and read through manifestos, learn about the issues which are important to you, and make sure to register by 18 June to vote on 4 July! Your vote counts!"

- Eric Cui WU, Student Community Organiser with King's For Change