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<p>As part of the transition to Individual Electoral Registration (IER), entries on
the electoral register will be matched against data held by Department for Work and
Pensions (DWP) for the purposes of confirming existing electors, a process which will
simplify the transition for the majority of existing electors. Last year the Cabinet
Office undertook pilots to test this process and we published our evaluation of these
pilots earlier this year which is available to download from:</p><p>https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/simplifying-the-transition-to-individual-electoral-registration</p><p>
</p><p>The evaluation report includes an analysis of match rates by population groups
and while no specific analysis was undertaken of seaside towns, the results did suggest
that match rates were lower in areas with high student populations. However, anyone
who cannot be confirmed will still be invited to register individually and will retain
their ability to vote in the 2015 general election. By using confirmation to simplify
the process for the majority of electors it means resources can be focused on maximising
registration among those people who cannot be confirmed, including individuals who
are not currently registered. We are also currently running a separate set of pilots
exploring whether data matching against DWP and other trusted national data sets can
be used to find potential electors who are not currently registered but may be eligible
to do so, in order to invite them to register. The results of the pilots, which are
specifically targeted at boosting registrations among students, attainers and home-movers,
will be published in the summer.</p>
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