The campaign to leave the EU seems to have acquired an advert on the Google search engine that seats its website at the very top of the search results in the UK when “register to vote” is typed in.
When a person reaches the website and clicks on the “have you registered to vote?” link, the website redirects users to a webpage with a form that says “Register To Vote Now”.
However, filling in this form doesn’t register the person to vote, instead it sends their information straight to Vote Leave.
Education Secretary Nicky, who is campaigning for Remain alongside Labour MP Stella Creasy wrote in their joint letter to the Electoral Commission:
“It has come to our attention that Vote Leave appear to have paid for online advertising to ensure that their campaign website regarding registration is promoted ahead of the government website that directly enables citizens to register to vote.
“This website does not enable people to register, and therefore could easily mislead people in to thinking that they have secured their ballot paper.
“By securing a ranking for this site higher than the official registration site, Vote Leave’s underhand tactics could disenfranchise citizens without their knowledge who have in good faith used this site to try to register.”
Vote Leave have already been accused of setting up a “con” competition with a one in several billion chance of a final winner. The competition reaped the details of everyone who entered, with a promise of a multi-million pound prize.
Gathering voter contact data could give Vote Leave an added benefit on election day as it will allow the campaign to contact people who they know are likely to vote.
