MORE than 230,000 people across the region are at risk of losing their right to vote, under a radical elections shake-up.

They are on course to drop off electoral rolls because of moves to require residents to register individually, rather than allowing one person to sign up an entire household.

Before the switch – to combat electoral fraud – election chiefs have sought to “match” voters from existing databases, automatically transferring names they can verify.

But, in County Durham alone, 45,989 people – or 11 per cent of the adult population – could not be matched and are currently missing from the new register.

There are also huge numbers to be found in Darlington (8,506, 11 per cent), Middlesbrough (11,026, 11 per cent), Richmondshire (3,996, 11 per cent) and – in particular - Newcastle (36,678, 18 per cent) and York (36,283, 23 per cent).

Areas with a high density of young adults, private renters and students have the most alarming gaps in their new rolls.

Missing voters have already been chased up with letters, asking them to provide additional information – their National Insurance number and date of birth – so they can be registered.

And local authorities have been urged to step up door-to-door canvassing, before the individual electoral registration (IER) rolls are introduced, late next year, or in 2016.

But Labour has warned the change is being rushed, calling for “block registration” of students and people in residential homes, to ensure they stay on lists.

Stephen Twigg, the party’s constitutional affairs spokesman, said: “There is real concern about a large number of people falling off the register.

Warning 7.5m names were already missing, Mr Twigg added: “If an unintended consequence of IER is that the situation gets even worse, all of us should be very concerned.”

But David Collingwood, Durham’s electoral services manager, played down talk of problems, saying: “New enquiry forms for further information will be followed up with personal visits if necessary.

“We are confident this process will see the majority successfully switched to the new system and be eligible to vote.”

The Electoral Commission, which is overseeing IER, is also confident the missing voters can be found, describing the proportion successfully ‘matched’ – 87 per cent nationwide – as “encouraging”.

Jenny Watson, its chairwoman, added: “There’s still more work to do. Every electoral registration officer has detailed plans in place to reach those residents they were not able to transfer automatically.”

IER - described as the biggest change to the electoral registration system in almost 100 years – has been deliberately delayed until after next year’s general election.

But Mr Twigg said rolling over existing lists would not capture people who have moved house – or turned 18 – since the last registers were compiled.