Compulsory voting
Compulsory voting is an effect of laws which require eligible citizens to register and vote in elections, and may impose penalties on those who fail to do so. , 22 countries provide for compulsory voting, and 11 democracies — about 5% of all United Nations members — enforce it.
Voter registration
In the UK voter registration is compulsory, but the requirement to register is rarely enforced.
The current system of registration in the United Kingdom (UK), introduced by the Labour government, is known as rolling registration. Electors can register with a local authority at any time of the year. This replaced the twice-yearly census of electors, which often disenfranchised those who had moved during the interval between censuses.