Website helps university students to use vote tactically
The website allows students to compare the postcodes of their home address and university residence.
Students looking to cast their vote where it will have the most impact are being helped by a new website.
The website allows university students to compare the postcodes of their home address and university residence to see which seat is more likely to be an electoral battleground.
The information improves the ability of students to vote tactically by voting in a marginal seat instead of a Labour or Tory stronghold.
Students are able to vote in either of their two registered addresses and many university seats – such as Cambridge, where Labour’s majority over the Liberal Democrats was under 600 in 2015 – are closely fought.
The http://ge2017.com/students site was created by online journalism firm Explaain in an effort to help inform voters.
Theresa May’s constituency office address shows that Maidenhead is a safe Tory seat. She studied at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, in the Oxford West and Abingdon constituency – which is also listed as a safe Tory seat, despite Lib Dem efforts to target it.
The website says: “Looks like there’s not much choice! Both are safe seats.”
The analysis of whether a seat is safe is based on the 2015 election result, changes in results over time, local betting odds, the student population and the European Union referendum result.
It’s a similar story for the other main party leaders – Jeremy Corbyn dropped out of North London Polytechnic, now part of London Metropolitan University, but its Holloway Road building is in his rock-solid Islington North seat.
Tim Farron’s Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency office is listed as being in a safe Liberal Democrat seat, which will come as a relief to him following reports that the Tories are seeking to oust him in a “decapitation strategy”. Newcastle University, which he attended and is based in Newcastle upon Tyne Central, is safely Labour.
