Now is the time to make sure you’re on the electoral register. Eastleigh Borough Council has recently sent out hand-delivered forms to every household as part of the annual canvas. These contain details of eligible voters in each household – if the details are correct you just need to confirm – and if not you must amend/add to the details and inform the council.

Because a little known fact is that while there is no obligation to vote, the law states that you must return registration information when asked to do so.

The Council makes the process as easy as possible as if forms are not returned they will door-knock twice to get the information.

A myth concerning the electoral roll is that if you pay council tax you’re automatically registered to vote. In fact you’re not – you have to register specifically for the electoral roll.

And if you’re not registered you can’t vote – and a parliamentary general election must take place at some time by 3 June 2010.

The results in the general election of 5 May 2005 were close for Eastleigh Constituency.

Conservative Conor  Burns    18,648 votes

Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne   19,216 votes

UKIP’s Christopher Murphy        1,669 votes

Labour’s Christopher Watt    10,238 votes

So whatever your political allegiance – or even if you have none currently, you might by the time an election is called – don’t lose your right to vote!

People with no fixed address can still register to vote via a ‘declaration of local connection’ and you can vote by post or appoint a proxy to vote for you if you’re not able to make it to a polling station on voting day.

The Electoral Commission’s sister site About My Vote has details of how to register and information about the electoral register and voting. Information can also be obtained from Eastleigh Borough Council’s website.

Pictured is an application form for initial registration which can be downloaded from Eastleigh Borough Council’s website.