What is voter ID, how do I apply, and why is it controversial?

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Voters have been required to deliver photographic identification for sure elections within the UK since May 2023.

This got here after parliament handed the Elections Act in April 2022, enacting a suggestion the Electoral Commission first made in 2014.

Voter ID is now required at by-elections and recall petitions, common elections, native elections and referendums in England, and Police and Crime Commissioner elections in England and Wales.

The new guidelines do not apply to Scottish Parliament, Welsh Senedd, or council elections happening in Scotland or Wales.

The new ID legal guidelines have already been in place in lots of native elections and by-elections since being carried out. But 2024 would be the first yr they’re in place for a London mayoral election – and probably a common election.

Sadiq Khan has criticised the brand new voter ID guidelines forward of May’s London mayoral election in an article for The Independent.

“New rules making it compulsory to have an approved form of ID, a deliberate attempt to reduce turnout, also puts the election on a knife-edge,” the London Mayor writes.

“At the last London mayoral election, in 2021, I was less than 5 per cent ahead after the first round of voting. These are the finer margins we’ll now be dealing with.”

Here’s every little thing you could find out about voter ID forward of upcoming elections:

What ID do I have to vote?

There are many alternative types of ID that shall be accepted on the polling station. It have to be photographic ID – which means a financial institution card is not legitimate, as an illustration.

Accepted types of ID embrace:

You can use an out-of-date photograph ID supplied it nonetheless appears such as you. A full checklist of accepted types of ID could be discovered on the Electoral Commission web site.

What if I don’t have voter ID?

If you do not have any of the accepted types of photograph ID, you’ll be able to apply for a Voter Authority Certificate. It’s free to use for, and shall be accepted on the polling station if you wish to vote.

You can apply for a Voter Authority Certificate on the Electoral Commission web site. It is free and they do not expire, though it is really helpful you reapply each 10 years to make sure your likeness stays just like the ID.

If you don’t deliver an accepted type of photograph ID to the polling station, you can be turned away.

The London mayoral elections happen on 2 May 2024. For this election, the deadline to use for a Voter Authority Certificate is 5pm on 24 April 2024.

What are the problems round voter ID?

The authorities sought to go the brand new voter ID legal guidelines to crack down on election fraud, particularly ‘personation’. This is a legal offence, the place an individual votes at an election pretending to be somebody they’re not.

Writing after they had been handed, then-levelling up minister Kemi Badenoch mentioned the brand new legislation “means we can eliminate election fraud and make elections more inclusive, ensuring that everyone eligible to vote will continue to have the opportunity to do so.”

However, critics of the voter ID guidelines have identified that circumstances of electoral fraud are uncommon within the UK, and personation much more so. Latest knowledge from the Electoral Commission reveals that, between 2018 and 2022, solely 11 of the 1,386 alleged circumstances of electoral fraud resulted in convictions.

There are additionally considerations that voter ID legal guidelines can disproportionately have an effect on marginalised communities’ skill to vote.

In 2021, government-commissioned analysis discovered that these with limiting disabilities, the unemployed, folks with out {qualifications}, and those that had by no means voted earlier than had been among the many least more likely to maintain a sound type of photograph ID.

Further analysis offered to the House of Commons discovered that the adjustments might lead to 1.1 million fewer folks voting within the subsequent common election.

“As there is no justification for this threat to the right to vote, it feels like an opportunistic attack on the rights of some of the most marginalised people in society,” mentioned a spokesperson for the Liberty human rights advocacy group in 2021.

“A classic example of ruling through division and distrust.”

The authorities’s alternative to simply accept types of native journey photograph ID for older folks, however not youthful folks, has additionally come beneath scrutiny. Neither the 16-25 or 26-30 railcard are accepted.

Labour MP Nadia Whittome mentioned: “The new voter ID requirement will stop many young people from voting – and it seems that is by design, not by accident.

“The government has given older voters, who are more likely to vote Conservative, a large range of acceptable forms of ID, while providing very few options for young people.

Levelling up minister Dehenna Davison has defended the decision, saying: “Young person’s railcards are generally offered in both digital and hard copy formats.

“The government did not specifically include digital format documents for the roll-out of the policy, in order to support its effective delivery.”