Register to vote

Registering as a student

If a term-time address is in a different area to a home address

Students who have a permanent home address and a term-time address can be registered lawfully at both addresses.

Registering at both addresses allows the elector to vote in two different council electoral areas for local elections only.

For example, if your permanent home address was in Newcastle-under-Lyme but your term-time address was in a different council area, you would be eligible to vote in local elections taking place in Newcastle as well as local elections taking place in the other council area.

If a term-time address is in the same area as a home address

It is an offence to vote more than once in a parliamentary election.

If your permanent home address and term-time address fall within the same local authority area, you would need to consider whether to vote from your permanent address or your term-time address and vote once only. For example, if your permanent address was in Clayton and your term-time address in Keele, these addresses would both fall under the Newcastle-under-Lyme local authority area. Therefore, it would be an offence to vote from both of these addresses as it would be considered ‘voting twice’.

An offence could result in a fine of up to £5,000.

Register to vote

If you are a student at Keele University, you will be given the option to pass on your details to us to register at your term-time address when you enrol.

If you only wished to remain registered at your permanent home-address and you decided not to return home to vote in person, you could apply for a postal vote or appoint someone to vote on your behalf (by proxy). Further information on this can be found on the how to vote page.

Polling stations

Sometimes, we may use college/universities as polling stations. Students should be reminded that just because you attend the college/university, this does not automatically mean you are entitled to vote at this particular polling station. You should always check your poll card for your correct polling station.