A recent experience with the electoral register

At the beginning of the year, I moved to a remote part of Scotland.

This meant I had to do all of the usual tasks when you make a big address change, such as:

  • updating your driving license and car tax
  • changing your postal address
  • registering with a new doctor and dentist in that area

I had moved to a new part of Scotland, meaning I was no longer on the electoral register. So, I wanted to set that up again.

Remote addresses do not conform with the norm

I live in an area where addresses are messy. I’m not entirely sure what my house number is, because there’s so few.

We explain where we live to others in this area, by describing the surroundings. Or whether you’re at the north or south end. Even with features of the house, or who your neighbours are.

So trying to add my address to a form can be tricky.

Filling out a form with a remote address

When I use a postcode search to automatically input my address, I will get multiple options for what could be my address.

Different names, numbers and lengths. Who knows which one is right? Not me.

Even if there’s a manual option to input my address, I’m not sure what version will be correct on their system.

I experienced this with the electoral register form. I submitted it with my best guess on what address would be suitable.

Getting confusing responses

A few months later, I received a worrying letter from the Valuation Joint Board (yikes).

In block capitals, it said ‘Potential removal from the published register of electors’.

It went on to explain that this board believed I no longer lived at this address. Strange – what would make them think this? Has something happened to make them think this is the case?

It also said that if I don’t respond to them by ‘immediate return’ (not sure what this means) within 14 days, I’m off the register.

The use of ‘immediate return’ made me look in the envelope for a form to fill out and send to them. Nope, nothing.

I did find a phone number on the letter, so decided to call and find out what’s happened.

Turns out, that address doesn’t exist on their system. So my account was flagged as needing resolved.

The letter didn’t reflect this and made me a little worried at the time.

The impact

The fix was a 10-minute phone call, where I had to make a new application over the phone. No biggie.

But my concern from this experience is that if I had missed that letter, it would impact my ability to:

  • vote in future electoral events
  • get credit from lenders
  • hire purchase agreements

Not a small thing to mess with.

Ideas for improvements

Perhaps the online system should immediately flag if your address is not recognised.

Perhaps the user should be contacted if their address does not fit into the system.

Perhaps 14 days is too short for this – what if the user is away from their home for 2 weeks? What if they are planning on applying for a credit card soon, and this causes them to be denied?

I also think the letter could be more tailored towards the situation. ‘We’re having issues matching your address on our system. This may be because your address is remote or there’s a problem with what you entered in your application. We’ll call you in the next few days to resolve this.’

A text message or email would’ve been useful too. In case the letter got lost (which is bound to happen).

Providing multiple forms of communication means there’s a higher chance of the user being informed.

Design for your smaller user groups first

If this service was designed for remote users, it would work for non-remote users too. Those who live in flats with strange numbering systems. Those who have a house name instead of a number.

Designing for the smaller user groups first, means that the service will work for more people sooner.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *