I was surprised to get a letter in the post today regarding voting from my local council (Wolverhampton Council) titled "Your vote matters. The way you register to vote is changing".
I almost completely overlooked it and ripped it up for the bin, but by some off chance I skimmed down far enough to notice something odd in the letter "... The open register is an extract of the electoral register, but it is not used for elections.It can be bought by any person, company or organisation ...".
I was surprised and outraged by this so I continued reading... apparently I'm automatically included into both the electoral register and this new open register, just because the local government can, and if I don't want to be in the Open Register I must call up a number and input the security code on the back of the letter.
So now I'm wondering... How many people have received this letter and just overlooked the true gravity of it's message? I mean it is quite obviously written in a format to hide the fact that the local government have automatically included you on a list which will be sold to anyone and everyone. And if you don't notice, your local government is dishing out your name, address and god knows what other details to anyone who is willing to pay!
So if you receive a letter titled "Your vote matters. The way you register to vote is changing" make SURE you phone the free number in the letter and opt-out of the open register.
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