A lobby group has called on the UK government to scrap mandatory identification for those voting in person as it reported a “significant number” of people were excluded from Thursday’s local polls in England.
Under the Elections Act 2022, UK voters are legally required to provide photo ID before voting, under a system in place in Northern Ireland since 2007.
But activists criticized the government’s decision to allow only certain IDssuch as passports and driver’s licenses, pointing to estimates that between 925,000 and 2 million voters lack eligible documents.
Tom Brake, director of Unlock Democracy, said it was clear from follow-up comments on social media that the new system went “very badly” on Thursday. “A significant number of people were unaware of the need for a voter ID card,” he said, adding that the requirement should now be dropped.
In West Sussex, Andrew Vince, a health worker, told the BBC he was “furious” after being stopped from using his NHS staff badge to vote.
In Milton Keynes, Chris Curtis, Labor candidate for deputy, said on Twitter: “We have just had a nurse, back from a long shift, who turned away from the polling station because she wouldn’t accept her NHS ID badge.”
Meanwhile Mark Oakley, co-leader of ‘Evusheld for the UK’, a patient campaign group, said some immunocompromised people had been put off voting because they didn’t want to take their masks off indoors. .
“We know a lot of people have contacted their local council about this and been told it was the councils,” he said. “And we know a lot of people have said that if it was, they wouldn’t even go to the polling station because they don’t want to take the risk.”
The Electoral Commission, the poll watchdog, said it would take weeks to determine the impact of the new law on the number of votes.
“We already know from our research that the ID requirement posed a greater challenge to some groups in society and some people were unfortunately unable to vote today,” said he declared. “Understanding the magnitude of this impact and the reasons behind it will be essential before we can make a definitive statement about how the policy has worked in practice.”
The watchdog is expected to release an initial analysis of the voter ID implementation in June, with a more detailed report expected to be released in September.
The government insisted the new rules were brought in due to concerns about in-person voter fraud, and previously said: ‘We cannot be complacent when it comes to ensuring the security of our democracy .”
However, the Election Commission said that, since 2018, there have only been nine convictions and six police cautions in connection with the offence.
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