Wednesday 5 February is National Voter Registration Day and students’ unions up and down the UK will be coming together by encouraging their students to register to vote. Join us.

With just months until the election, we are joining forces with Bite the Ballot to run registration drives across UK college and university campuses today (Wednesday 5 February).

We know that politicians make decisions based on who they think will be voting and if your name isn’t on the register, they won’t give you a second look. And that’s why we need to speak up for ourselves at the ballot box.

Take action

The action is simple, we want to get as many students and young people as possible to register to vote and to begin discussing issues that matter to them in the lead up to the General Election so that they are on the agenda for politicians.
 

Ways your students’ union can get involved

There are number of ways your SU could participate in NVRD:

• Hold a voter registration drive on your college or university campus and ask your students to register themselves online (if you’re in Northern Ireland, you’ll need to use this form).
• Sign up to NUS’ Thunderclap via your social media channels and help to make #GenerationVote trending topic!
• You can show your support by adding a #GenerationVote Twibbon to your social media avatars.
• Use the #GenerationVote hash tag, ask your union, your officers and most importantly your students to tweet about why they’ll be voting on Thursday 7 May.
• If you’re officers and staff are feeling photogenic, use the #GenerationVote stamps we supplied your union with and upload photos of your stamped hands to your social media channels (example above)
• Share our Buzzfeed on ‘the truth about why young people need to vote’ with your students

Need more information?

We’ve put together this toolkit with more ideas, tips and information for National Voter Registration Day.

In the run up to the General Election, NUS is holding regular Days of Action covering the key themes across the New Deal in which we’re supporting students’ unions to campaign on the issues your students care most about locally. You can find more information on our upcoming Days of Action online here or by getting in touch with campaigns@nus.org.uk.