Almost two million registered voters do not have valid ID and could be turned away on polling day, according to new data.
Exclusive data from Survation and Royal Holloway, University of London released ahead of the General Election suggest that a shocking 4% of all those registered lack appropriate ID to vote.
The figure is far higher in some areas, however. In both Wakefield West in West Yorkshire and Liskeard Central in Cornwall, an estimated 39% of registered voters don’t have ID, affecting thousands of people. You can compare figures for every ward in England and Wales using our interactive map:
Chris Hanretty, Professor of Politics at Royal Holloway, University of London, said: “The vast majority of registered voters have photo ID, but a small proportion don’t, and that small proportion gets bigger in some areas. If just a few of these voters without ID turn up to vote, we can expect lots of stories about people being disenfranchised.”
New laws requiring voter ID were introduced last year, with the local elections in England on 4 May 2023 being the first in Britain to require voters to show identification before being issued with a ballot paper. Voters can use passports, driving licences, Proof of Age Standards Scheme (PASS) cards, Blue badges, and some concessionary travel cards, according to a list from the Electoral Commission. People without an existing acceptable form of voter ID can apply online or by post for a free Voter Authority Certificate (VAC).
The deadline to apply for a VAC in order to vote in the Parliamentary General Election on Thursday 4 July is 5pm on Wednesday 26 June. If you go to the polling station without the correct ID, you’ll be turned away – and in fact Boris Johnson was turned away from his local polling station this May after forgetting to bring ID.
Meanwhile, thousands of people who tried to vote at a polling station in the local elections last month were not able to because of the voter ID requirement, and many non-voters said they did not vote because of the ID requirement. In its statutory report, produced in September 2023, the Electoral Commission found that some people found it harder than others to show accepted voter ID, including disabled people, younger voters, people from ethnic minority communities, and the unemployed.
The Commission and others have recommended the list of allowable ID be reviewed and consideration be given to making the voter ID rules more accessible to the most affected groups. However, the Government rejected calls for additional types of ID to be added to the list, saying the implementation of voter ID was “conducted efficiently with very few voters initially turned away”.
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