1 in 4 UK Voters Unaware They Need Photo ID to Vote in May Local Elections

A member of the public goes to vote in the Chester by-election at the Festival Church polling station in Chester, England, on Dec. 1, 2022. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Almost a quarter of British voters still do not know that they will need photo ID to vote in the local elections on May 4, the Electoral Commission said.

Under the Elections Bill passed in April 2022, it is now mandatory for voters to show photographic ID across polling booths in Great Britain, meaning the UK’s electoral regulation has been brought in line with the common practice in most European countries.

Anyone without the correct identification—such as a passport or driving licence—needs to apply for a voter authority certificate (VAC) by April 25.

The Electoral Commission said it has been running a campaign since January to make sure people were aware of this change.

Craig Westwood, the agency’s director of communications, told the BBC on Friday, “The awareness in the public has gone up from 22 to 76 percent over that period and that’s still with a month to go.”

The Local Government Association (LGA) has voiced fears that electoral staff will be “overwhelmed” on polling day as they grapple with “the biggest change to in-person voting in 150 years.”

The Electoral Commission said that extra polling station staff who have been preparing “for months” to deal with new voter ID rules will be drafted in for the local elections.

Preparing for Change

Westwood said that extensive planning has been undertaken to get councils ready for the challenge.

He said: “There will be more staff. Some polling stations, particularly larger ones where there are more people who will be registered in that area, will have greeters—people who are outside the polling station that can just make sure that people are definitely aware of the ID requirement, that they’d got it with them, they’ve got it out of their purse, wallet, bag, and have got it ready, just to make sure that any queues are being eased through.”

Asked whether he is concerned about low numbers of people registering for a VAC as the deadline looms, Westwood said there is usually a “very significant spike” in last-minute applications.

There have been 60,368 online applications for a VAC since the scheme opened on Jan. 16 this year.

The average number of applications per day stood at 1,129 in the week to April 13, the highest so far and up from an average of 1,018 the previous week.

Some 2,127 applications were submitted on April 13, the highest number on a single day so far and the first time the daily total has topped 2,000.

‘Unnecessary’

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said the rule change will help make sure voting is a “high-integrity process.”

Downing Street said the rules are aimed at preventing potential voter impersonation, rather than dealing with any widespread existing issue.

The prime minister’s official spokesman said only a “very small proportion” of young voters lack the necessary ID to cast their ballot.

Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said: “The government has a crucial responsibility to make voters aware of their voter ID policies, but they are clearly failing in their duties.

“Labour are clear that voter ID is an expensive, unnecessary policy and the wrong priority at the height of a cost-of-living crisis.”

The Liberal Democrats called on the government to abandon the policy when Parliament returns on Monday, describing its impact as a “national scandal” that could lead to “a disaster for our democracy.”

Northern Ireland Precedent

Much like in the USA, the issue has become a hot topic in the UK, with Labour calling voter ID laws a discriminatory policy that will “disenfranchise millions of voters.”

But voter ID has been a requirement in Northern Ireland, also part of the UK, for nearly 40 years.

Voter ID requirements were introduced in Northern Ireland after the 1983 general elections following concerns about the extent of voter fraud in the British province. Since 2003 photographic ID has been required.

According to a briefing paper for the House of Commons, “There has been no evidence that the ID requirements in Northern Ireland have affected turnout.”

Since 2014 the Electoral Commission has recommended that photo ID should be required in the rest of the UK.

Election Integrity

According to a database on voting rules worldwide compiled by the Crime Prevention Research Center, election integrity measures are widely accepted globally, and have often been adopted by countries after they’ve experienced fraud under looser voting regimes.

Of 47 nations surveyed in Europe, all except the UK have been requiring a government-issued photo voter ID to vote.

Some 74 percent of European countries entirely ban absentee voting for citizens who reside domestically. Another 6 percent limit it to those hospitalized or in the military, and they require third-party verification and a photo voter ID. Another 15 percent require a photo ID for absentee voting.

Similarly, government-issued photo IDs are required to vote by 33 nations in the 37-member Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which has considerable European overlap.

Owen Evans and PA Media contributed to this report.