NTU academic faces backlash after encouraging students to vote

An academic who works at Nottingham Trent University has faced backlash on social media after encouraging students to register at their home address, as well as their University accommodation.

Professor Carrie Paechter works at NTU as the director of the Nottingham Centre for Children, Young People and Families.

Professor Paechter retweeted a post from the University of Nottingham, simply encouraging students to register to vote at their student and home address before the upcoming general election on 12 December.

Don’t forget that you can register at both your home and your uni addresses. https://t.co/1nJ2DRx9gj

— Professor Carrie Paechter (@CarriePaechter) October 30, 2019

However, the tweet quickly gained momentum online, and despite receiving over one thousand ‘likes’, the tweet also became the focus of negative attention.

Several users claimed that what she was suggesting was illegal and “irresponsible”, with others stating it was “very bad advice”.

Vote twice and commit election fraud…

— Albion Cat (@AlbionCat) October 31, 2019

Paechter addressed the comments in another tweet, reiterating her point of view and claiming she was not endorsing voting in two places, simply registering in two places to allow students to vote wherever they are.

Just to confirm: I am not advocating voting in two places, just registering at both addresses so that you can vote where you are on the day.

— Professor Carrie Paechter (@CarriePaechter) October 31, 2019

She explained that she simply wanted to remind students to register as University’s are now unable to automatically register them themselves.

“Students have to sort this out for themselves and not all of them remember to do so,” she explained.

“I think it’s really important that everyone exercises their democratic right to vote and I think it would be awful if a student missed out just because they are in the wrong place and haven’t sorted out a postal vote.”

Ultimately, Paechter never anticipated such a negative reaction from the post that resulted in people saying she should be “struck off” and “charged with fraud”.

“I was only suggesting something entirely legal,” she claims.

“It gave me quite an insight into what it must be like to be a controversial woman MP, it was very shocking,” she added making reference to how local Broxtowe MP Anna Soubry retweeted the post.

However, despite the events, Paechter believes it is vital for students to get involved with politics.

“It’s important to engage with political ideas and think about what sort of a world and country we want to live in,” she explained.

“People fought for a long time for the right to vote – don’t take it for granted.”

By Faith Pring

Feature image credit: Pixabay