How it works
Pubs that sign up to the scheme online will receive a Google document link to put in customer details. This entry will be checked against a shared database to ensure that the customer hasn’t already claimed their free drink in another pub.
Joby Andrews, a Bristol publican who operates three pubs in the city, set up the Vote This Year Get Free Beer campaign to encourage people to vote in the snap general election after being disappointed by turnout for Bristol’s mayoral elections.
To claim their free pint, or equivalent drink, customers are being asked to bring a printed email confirming they have registered to vote to participating pubs.
Andrews told The Morning Advertiser: “We had some mayoral elections in Bristol recently with only 30% turnout. Then at the last election, more people didn't vote than actually voted for any party so I now appreciate how important it is that people vote. That is why we started this campaign to get people to try to vote in this election.”
Andrews added that he had only expected to run the scheme in the three pubs he operates in Bristol – the Lazy Dog, the Pipe & Slippers and the Windmill – but that it had “snowballed”.
Pubs in Bournemouth, London, Sheffield and Liverpool have joined the campaign and Andrews says he wants to sign up more than 100 pubs by the time voter registration closes on 22 May.