British expats could soon find that they can register to vote online in UK elections.
Some 3.5 million eligible expats around the world could be presented with an easier way to cast their ballot, but only those who have been abroad for less than 15 years.
Under the current system, Britons living abroad have to fill out a registration form and send it to their local electoral office in the UK.
Once on the electoral register, they can arrange to vote in person, or via postal or proxy vote.
However, only some 20,000 of the 3.5 million are believed to be registered, less than 1% of the total.
The biggest concentrations are in Spain, with an estimated one million UK voters, Australia, also with a million, and France, which is thought to have around 450,000.
Plans are finally afoot to arrange modern online registration. The move comes after criticism from MPs that the Electoral Commission had not even considered expats in its efforts to register more voters.
John Waterworth, of the Government Digital Service, said: "This will be more convenient, simpler and quicker. It’s also about us having a better identification process to improve the quality of our register."
Mr Waterworth did, however, underscore that the 15 year rule would stay in place. “The qualification we have as to who can and cannot vote is not changing.”
A pilot scheme for online registration needs expat volunteers if they are visiting Britain in order to help assess the process. Tests lasting 45 minutes will be held in Oxford on Thursday October 31 and London on Tuesday December 17.
"Anyone who is a British citizen living overseas can come and try it out," he explained.
"We will talk for a bit about your understanding and experience, you get to try out the process and we will see if you have any questions. If people have some time to help out, that would be fantastic."
For more information, go to www.gov.uk and see Voting in the UK and Electoral Registration.
To sign up for the testing days, please contact Sarah Tynan (saraht@bunnyfoot.com) for Oxford and Kelley Frizelle (kelley@bunnyfoot.com) for London.
