Automatic voter registration to increase number of people eligible for jury service - Jersey Evening Post
by Julien Morel · Jersey Evening PostPosted inNews
Automatic voter registration to increase number of people eligible for jury service
by Julien Morel 6 June 20265 June 2026
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THE number of people eligible for jury service is set to increase by tens of thousands by the end of this year due to the move to automatic voter registration.
Around 71,000 Islanders will potentially be called up to serve on a jury, compared to 40,000 who are eligible at the moment, under the previous electoral roll system.
That is a 77.5% increase in the size of the jury service pool, adding more people into the mix but diluting the chance that any individual is summoned.
Islanders are called for jury service based on their names being randomly selected from the electoral register. This list used to be based on people adding or confirming their names annually by filling in a form sent by their parish hall at the beginning of each year.
However, for Sunday’s election, all eligible Islanders have been added to the electoral register using existing government data. This has increased the Island’s electoral register from the 60,700 people eligible for the 2022 election to the approximately 84,500 Islanders on the roll for this election.
The Viscount’s Department, which oversees jury selection, is currently upgrading and testing its jury selection software and anticipates that the new electoral roll will be used to select jurors before the end of this year.
Deputy Viscount Matt Berry said that this would capture more Islanders – although it would not include 16- and 17-year-olds, who are eligible to vote but not sit on a jury.
Islanders have a legal obligation to sit on a jury if selected, with the Viscount’s Department usually informing people via a letter. More people are summoned than required for each trial so not everyone is needed – but they must still attend court when asked to.
Certain professions, such as doctors and dentists, are exempt but they must still write to the Viscount’s Department asking to be excused.
Jurors must be aged 18 to 71, although certain previous convictions may disqualify a person from serving
In the latest published Judicial Greffe Annual Report, for 2024, the assize trial process was started 35 times, 20 were completed, there were 76 trial days and 2,250 jury summonses were issued, a 21% increase on the year before.
The 40% increase in the total number of Islanders eligible to vote this year – due to the move to automatic registration – is likely to mean that the percentage of the electoral who actually vote is likely to fall.
In the 2022 election, that figure was 41.74%, handing Jersey the dubious accolade of having one of the lowest voter turnouts among OECD nations.
This year, mindful that more people on the electoral roll is likely to drive this percentage down further, the States Greffe is asking people to focus on the total number of people who cast their vote.
In 2022, just under 25,000 people voted.
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