Pilot projects have given 16,000 more people in Wales the right to vote

Martin Shipton

The first ever Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) pilots in the UK have seen thousands of people added to the electoral register.

The Electoral Commission has published results from pilots held in three local areas in Gwynedd, Newport and Powys, showing more than 16,000 people were added to the electoral rolls.

The Welsh Government launched AVR pilots in 2024 under powers in the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Act 2024 [2].

Four pilots were held across Wales, with three local authorities using existing public data, such as council tax and education records, to add eligible voters to the register without requiring individual applications.

The pilots form part of Wales’s wider programme of electoral reform, including votes at 16 and greater franchise accessibility. The AVR pilots’ significance lies in scale and proof of concept as they show that registration barriers can be reduced using data already held by the state.

The pilots also have a wider significance for the UK as the Westminster government has announced its intention to roll out automated voter registration across the rest of the union.

The Electoral Commission currently estimates upwards of eight million people are not registered to vote in the UK and Britain has been recently named one of the most difficult places to register to vote in the democratic world.

These pilots show that thousands of people can be enfranchised by just using local authority data, meaning that far more individuals could be added to the electoral rolls through a UK Government scheme that can draw on wider national level datasets.

Commenting on the results of the pilots, Jess Blair, Director of Electoral Reform Society Cymru, said: “These AVR pilots have added over 16,000 previously unregistered potential voters to the electoral register in just three local areas. It proves that AVR works and should be in place across Wales for future elections. It makes life easier and simpler for voters and could help reduce the barriers thousands of people across the country face in terms of playing an active part in our democracy.

“The fact that over 16,000 people in Wales were added in just three areas with only local authority data means the potential for AVR at a UK level, using more comprehensive data, is huge.

“It is hugely disappointing that AVR won’t be in place for the Senedd election in May 2026, and we urge the next Welsh government to move swiftly to ensure it is in place for local elections in 2027.

“With the UK Government looking at how to improve registration in forthcoming legislation, they should look to Wales and learn from the success of these pilots to ensure thousands of people across the whole of the UK can have the barrier of registration removed.”