Hundreds of thousands of people could be prevented from voting in the local elections next month if new photo ID requirements aren’t delayed, a senior Tory MP has claimed.
Voters will need to show photo ID for the first time in England at polling booths on May 4, including either a passport, driver’s licence or blue badge.
Those who do not have the right documentation already will need to register online for a free voter ID by April 25.
But uptake of the free ID has reportedly been low, with Sky News reporting just over 48,000 people who registered online in the last two months. That’s compared with up to 3.5 million people estimated to not have an existing photo ID.
Despite the local elections being just weeks away, a quarter of people are unaware they need photo ID to vote, according to the Electoral Commission.
Former Cabinet minister and MP for Haltemprice and Howden, David Davis, said the system has not worked and should be delayed.
“If they do that, at least it avoids the worst outcome which is thousands, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people are prevented from voting and exercising their democratic right,” he told Sky News.
The photo ID requirement, introduced to prevent in-person voter fraud, is “preventing something that doesn’t happen”, Mr Davis claimed.
He told Sky News: “This is an answer to a problem that’s not there. Are we actually going to discriminate against the old and the poor in our election system?”
The deadline to register to vote for the local elections was on Monday. A total of 53,849 applications to take part in the elections were submitted in the last 24 hours before the cut-off, the highest for a single day so far this year, according to Sky News.
Extra polling station staff will be drafted in to help with the new photo ID requirements. 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 changes have been branded “expensive” and “unnecessary” by Labour and sparked concern among electoral reform campaigners who say it could make it harder for some voters to cast their ballot.
But Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said the change will help make sure voting is a “high-integrity process”, despite no evidence of large-scale electoral fraud in the UK.
Between 2018 and 2022, there were nine convictions relating to electoral fraud and six police cautions issued, according to Electoral Commission figures.
Downing Street has said the rules are aimed at preventing “potential” voter impersonation, rather than dealing with any widespread existing issue.
If you do not have an acceptable voter ID, you can apply for a voter authority certificate. The deadline to apply is 5pm on April 25 if you need the certificate in time for the May 4 elections. You can apply online, and you’ll need a recent, digital photo of yourself and your national insurance number.
If you don’t know your national insurance number, you can use something else to identify yourself, such as a birth certificate, bank statement or utility bill.
