Politicians need to get out in their constituencies more to ensure voters are registered properly, according to registrar Randy Scott.

Mr. Scott believes about 2,000 voters are registered incorrectly — many able to vote in places they no longer live — but the problem could be solved if political parties were more active in their constituencies.

He was speaking after United Bermuda Party MP John Barritt tabled the Parliamentary Election Amendment Act which would give the registrar power to strike incorrectly registered voters off the list.

At last year's Pembroke East Central by-election, the UBP claimed more than 100 people remained able to vote despite no longer living in Constituency 16 — a large enough number to tip the balance in several key marginals.

But reacting to Mr. Barritt's proposed legislation, Mr. Scott said yesterday: "If candidates and the political parties along with their canvassing teams were out there on a regular basis, canvassing and getting voters registered correctly, we would not be having this conversation.

"To assist my work the political parties have to be more active in the constituencies; use the scrutineer mechanisms currently in the act."

Mr. Scott, whose department recently launched a Mr. Catchem cartoon to encourage people to register correctly, added that the act currently places the responsibility on the voter to carry out their registration requirements.

He said political parties should canvass constituencies once a year and are provided with registration forms to collect information from people who have switched areas.

"In a small country like this, there should not be any difficulty in canvassing thoroughly a constituency," he said.

Responding yesterday, Mr. Barritt said: "It's simply not reasonable to expect that this sort of work be undertaken by political volunteers, particularly in non-election periods.

"But even then there are people like myself who do scrutinise the list regularly, bringing things to his attention, and nothing's happening.

"It's also an open secret that political parties don't want to take people off because they know that person will vote a certain way.

"Something has got to be done and that's what I'm trying to bring to everyone's attention.

"The system doesn't work, it never has worked; if something isn't working, let's fix it."

Mr. Scott replied: "Any registration forms Mr. Barritt has brought into the office, those changes have been reflected on the register."

Mr. Barritt believes the registrar is currently toothless to do anything about wrongly registered voters; Mr. Scott concedes he does not have the authority to move a voter from one constituency to another.

Mr. Barritt's bill makes it the registrar's responsibility to keep the register under continuous review; he would be able to remove people from it if they're not able to show they are correctly registered.

The Progressive Labour Party is said to be unlikely to support the bill, with an article on Senator Walton Brown's Bermuda Network News saying the PLP wants to ensure everyone qualified to vote can actually cast their vote and warning about the UBP "disenfranchising" voters.

Mr. Barritt argued: "That's absolute nonsense. If someone comes to see him they can register them in the right place. We are trying to get them voting in the right constituency."

The Opposition MP for Legislative Reform said he was trying to highlight the need for electoral reform, saying the need for absentee ballots is also long overdue.