Half of local authorities spent just 11p per voter on awareness campaigns for the new Voter ID requirements, research suggests.
Of those who declared a specified budget to inform voters of the changes, half of authorities spent only £10,000 or less, according to freedom of information (FOI) requests.
A local authority that might typically have around 90,000 electors would see the funding distributed at only 11p per head, research by Unlock Democracy showed.
Some 12.2% of authorities had shockingly spent nothing at all on Voter ID awareness at the time the FOIs were sent in March.
And just 4% spent £30,000 or more on making sure people are aware of the new rules which require photo identification to be shown at polling stations.
Unlock Democracy, a coalition of campaign groups, sent FOIs to every local authority that is to take part in Thursday’s local elections where Voter ID will be in place for the first time.
Ministers insist they have been “working closely with local authorities” to raise awareness but just 85,000 people out of an estimated 2.1million voters without ID applied for a free ID document.
The government has claimed the change of rules is needed to crackdown on electoral fraud but the Mirror revealed last month that police issued just one caution for it last year.
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Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “Experts on all sides warned the government against their plans but the Tories ploughed on regardless.
“If this policy prevents people from voting, the responsibility lies squarely with this Conservative Government."
Tom Brake, of Unlock Democracy, said: “These figures show just how little effort has been put into making voters aware of this, the biggest change to our elections in generations.
“But I don't blame the local authorities. There's a double whammy of blame here on central Government. First, for foisting these unfair, undemocratic and unnecessary rules on the country and second, for giving local authorities a huge share of the work to inform voters about them but without giving them enough funds to do “
A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesman said: “The Government has also been working closely with local authorities and other partners to raise awareness, including a widespread public information campaign led by the Electoral Commission.”
The spokesman added: “It’s vital we keep our democracy secure, prevent the potential for voter fraud, and bring the rest of the UK in line with Northern Ireland which has had photo identification to vote in elections since 2003.
“That is why anyone casting their vote in person at the local elections will need to bring an accepted form of photographic identification.
“The vast majority of voters already own an accepted form of identification and a significant number of people will vote by post.”
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