Voting gives you a say in how the country is run. The different political parties have different policies that affect Gypsies and Travellers, such as site provision and planning, so it is important to use your vote and have your say.
If you have an address
You can register to vote online – you can even do this on a smart phone and it only takes around 5 mins. You can also download a register to vote form and post it to your local authority.
If you do not have a permanent address
You can still vote. You need to complete a form called a ‘Declaration of local connection’. You can get this from your local Electoral Registration Office. Alternatively, you can register by downloading and posting a form to your local authority.
You can register from an address where you would be living if it were not for your current circumstances, or an address where you are staying temporarily or have lived at in the past.
If you do not have a fixed address
You can give details of where you spend a lot of your time (during the day or night). This might be a day service, night shelter, or an address nearest to, for example, a park bench, a bus shelter or the doorway to a high-street store.
To complete the form – The form asks two questions:
(1) – “Where do you spend a large proportion of your time?”
(2) – “What is your care of address?”
1) To declare where you spend most of your time, you can say a day centre or a field, or a bench. It needs to be somewhere that is within the local area where you plan to vote. For example it could be ‘bench at the end of the high street’ or ‘field at the end of church road’.
In Brighton, our local unemployment centre supported people by allowing them to register their address as a C/O address, and people were also able to say they spent a large proportion of their time there. Is there somewhere nearby which could support you with this?
2) If you don’t have a care of address (C/O Address), you can contact your local electoral office. They should give you permission to use their address. Your polling station will be the nearest one to your C/O address (so this will be the electoral registration office).
If you’re linked in with any local services, it would be good to speak to them about it, they might be able to give you advice about C/O address.
For further advice:
Crisis: How to Register to vote if you’re homeless
Votey McVoteface (Facebook galvanising boaters to vote)
Friends, Families and Travellers
We provide advocacy casework, advice and information to Gypsies and Travellers on our national helpline. We can also provide advice on how to register to vote.
Telephone: 01273 234 777
This helpline is open Monday to Friday from 10am to 4.30pm, with the exception of bank holidays.
This is for information only. FFT does not endorse any organisation shared on the FFT website.
Correct as of January 2024.
