General election: How to register to vote

The UK goes to the polls on December 12 (Getty Images)

Whether you will be at home, overseas or away studying at university on polling day (Thursday, December 12), there is still time to get your name on the electoral roll.

The deadline to get your registration in is midnight on Tuesday, November 26 or 5pm the same day to vote by post, and here is how:

Who is eligible to vote

To vote you must: be 18 or over on the day of the election; be a British, Irish or Commonwealth citizen; be resident in the UK (or a British citizen living abroad who has been registered to vote in the UK in the last 15 years); not be legally excluded from voting.

Register online

It takes about five minutes to register to vote online. All you need is details of your national insurance number (if you do not have one you can still register) or if you are overseas, your passport details.

Vote away from home

There are two ways to vote if you cannot make it in person: by proxy or postal.

Proxy: this means someone else can hand in your vote for you as long as they are registered too. You can apply for proxy up to 5pm on December 4. So, if you register yourself now you still have a bit more time to sort out someone to go for you.

Postal: anyone can vote by post from anywhere in the world. All you need to do is fill out this form.

Vote at university

If you are a student you can register to vote in both your home address and university address, but it is illegal to vote more than once in a general election. For tactical reasons, you may decide to vote at your home address if there is a marginal seat and the seat at your term-time address is safe or vise-versa.

If you need help, contact the local registration office. If you want to vote in Sheffield this is Sheffield City Council.