VOTERS are required to take a form of photo ID with them to a polling station if they wish to cast a ballot in the General Election.
The rule was brought in last year for General Elections and there are various different types of acceptable ID you can show. It is important you take ID with you as you will not be able to vote without it.
What ID can you take with you?
Voters can take along 22 forms of photo ID that can be used in Scotland and these include:
- Passport
- Driving licence
- Older or disabled person’s bus pass
- Oyster 60+ cards
- Freedom Pass
- A blue badge
- A Young Scot card
- National identity card issued by an EEA state
You are allowed to use out-of-date ID as long as your photo looks the same as you. The name on your ID must be the same name you used to register to vote. If it doesn’t, you will need to take a document along with you that proves you have changed your name such as a marriage certificate.
What happens of you don’t have an acceptable form of ID?
Anyone registered to vote without the correct ID - or who no longer looks like their photo - can apply for a free document called a voter authority certificate.
However, the deadline to get one of these has now passed for this General Election.
Voters whose ID has been lost or stolen after the deadline can apply for an emergency proxy vote up until 5pm on polling day. Both they and their proxy must be registered to vote.
What if you turn up without correct ID?
You will be asked to come back to the polling station with correct documentation.
If you think your ID has been wrongly rejected, you should notify the presiding officer at the polling station. You can also raise your concerns with the council’s returning officer after that if the issue is not resolved.
Polling station staff record how many voters are turned away, as well as the number who return with valid ID.
Why is ID needed?
The rule was brought in for General Elections and local elections in England to try and stop votes being stolen – known as electoral fraud - but this is something which rarely happens anyway in the UK.
Voters are not required to show ID in Scottish Parliament elections or council elections in Scotland.
