Croydon Voter Registration Campaign A Success

Last Thursday 18th May, OBV, with the support of Croydon Council, hosted a voter registration campaign in Croydon. 

Along with an ad van plastered with a 48 sheet poster, we took to various locations in Croydon to meet and engage with the borough’s citizens, including Market Square, Croydon College and Thornton Heath High Street. 

Our visit to Croydon College was particularly successful.  With the help of our volunteers Rosy and Claire, we were able to engage with over 200 young people and encourage those who had not yet registered to do so. Many thousands will have seen the eyecatching poster that drove around the city the whole day.

We also took the campaign on-line where more than 30,000 individuals in the Croydon area were targeted.

With three constituencies including one of the most marginal seats in the country, with a Conservative majority of just 165, there is a real possibility to tip the balance in the Croydon Central constituency.  The BME electorate at 32,389 is far larger than the majority– this means that Croydon’s BME population holds a huge amount of power to influence the election result on June 8th. 

But to vote, you need to be registered.  Our campaign in Croydon was designed to inspire BME individuals to register to vote so that they can realise their potential political power.

OBV director Simon Woolley has echoed these sentiments: ‘We want all Croydon’s citizens Black and White to have a voice for these elections.  But you have register to vote first. We are particularly worried about BME groups not registering. Data shows our communities are five times more likely than white people not to be registered.  When more people engage and make their voices heard, parties are forced to listen and ensure policies work for everyone.’

We will be replicating the work in Croydon, to encourage voter turnout in the coming weeks.  Watch this space! (Pics below)

Ashok Viswanathan