How A Snap Election Produced A Snap Filter

Some might wonder how a partnership between the Electoral Commission and Snapchat to produce a Geofilter came about. It’s simple. To spread the message that people need to be registered to vote to have their say at the general election, we need to inspire people in ways that will resonate with them to take action.

For young people, a Snap with our registration Geofilter sent from a close friend could be just the thing to make them register.

We know that around seven million people across the UK aren’t correctly registered to vote. That’s seven million people who are effectively invisible in our democracy.

Our research shows that young people are much less likely to be registered to vote than older age groups. In fact, latest figures show that 30% of people aged under 34 aren’t registered compared to just 5% of those aged over 55.

But we also know that young people are more likely to be motivated to vote by having a say and expressing their view, which is why they often register to vote in the lead up to a poll.

It’s clear that voters across the UK want to have their voice heard. That’s why we work with a range of partners to increase voter registration, particularly amongst under-registered parts of the population.

By partnering with technology companies like Snapchat, who is home to over 10 million daily UK users that on average spend 30 minutes of their day on the platform, we can reach the people that need to hear this important message in a way that is right for them.

We know that this approach is effective. Facebook’s latest registration reminder contributed to around 348,000 applications to register on gov.uk/register-to-vote during 12-15 May. This helped Saturday 13 May to be the record day for online applications (113,000) since the general election was announced on 18 April, which triggered almost 147,000 online applications.

Today is the last chance for anyone who wants to have their say at the general election to register so they can vote on polling day.

To help remind as many people as possible, Snapchat have today launched the second of their two bespoke Geofilters which uses a voter registration message to encourage engagement and conversation among young people across Great Britain about the election.

Anyone who is eligible to vote at the general election should be able to take part. However if they’re not registered by midnight tonight then they will lose the chance to cast their vote.

Register to vote online in just five minutes at gov.uk/register-to-vote.

Done? Take a Snap, use the filter and let your friends and family know that this is their last chance to register so they can have their say on 8 June.

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