Sadiq Khan has launched what he describes will be the biggest ever drive to sign up postal voters in the capital. This comes ahead of the London Assembly and Mayoral ELections in May.
Khan spoke at Labour’s London Policy Forum on Saturday to warn that the party has been too “squeamish” about encouraging supporters to vote early, resulting in a “shocking” situation where Conservatives were effectively winning December’s general election two weeks before polling day.
Citing evidence that people with postal votes are nearly twice as likely to take part in elections as those who wait to cast their ballot at the polling station, he set a target to register 50,000 Londoners as “early voters” by the deadline of 22 April.
The mayor believes Labour has for too long regarded postal voting as something which is likely to boost turn-out mainly among older voters, who historically tend to favour Conservatives.
Instead, with increasingly time-poor modern lifestyles in the capital, he said it was “a perfectly legitimate tool to help voters with busy lives make sure they can exercise their right to vote”.
Labour should learn from Barack Obama’s registration campaign for the 2012 US presidential election as well as other successful UK elections.
Khan said:
Registering for an early vote is the best thing Londoners can do to help Labour win the mayoral election on 7 May and future elections too.
It’s shocking to think that the Tories were already winning the general election two weeks before polling day. For too long, Labour have thought about early votes as something that is only for older voters and have felt squeamish about registering people.
That changes now. We’re going to register 50,000 new early voters in London, following the rules all the way.
This comes as wider unease grows around Postal voting with many pointing to the result in Peterborough and other ‘rotten boroughs’ like Tower Hamlets. There have been accusations that certain communities manipulate posting voting with numerous cases being prosecuted over the years.
Polls indicate Mayor Khan is set for a comfortable victory ahead of Tory challenger Shaun Bailey.
Unity News Network (UNN) Staff Writer | To find out more details about our staff, please head to the About Us section on our website.
