Hundreds of people were turned away from casting a ballot in Liverpool’s council elections following voter ID changes.
Earlier this month, the city went to the polls in historic all-out elections as a newly drawn council map sent 85 new members to the Town Hall. More than 300 candidates contested 64 wards in the first ballot held since the installation of government appointed commissioners in June 2021.
From this year, elections nationwide have controversially required voters to carry photographic ID with them to cast a ballot at their polling station.
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Those carrying out their democratic duty need to carry with them a driving licence, passport or other acceptable form of identification as per new Whitehall mandated guidelines. This has come in following the passing of the Elections Act 2022 through Parliament last April.
Almost two weeks on from the landmark vote, Liverpool Council has confirmed how the changes impacted those casting a ballot to improve the transparency and openness of the election and the impact on turnout, including hundreds being turned away and choosing not to come back.
In a bid to make sure people could vote, the local authority issued 576 voter authority certificates as a form of ID.
More than 62,000 people were issued with a ballot paper on polling day where just 27% of eligible voters actually turned out. However, 516 voters were not issued with a ballot paper because they did not have appropriate voter ID or did not bring any.
More than half did return but more than 230 people elected not to come back. Turnout overall fell from 30.8% in 2021 and 27.3% in 2019.
Concerns over voter ID changes had been widely raised ahead of this month’s elections, with Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, branding the move as “blatant ID gerrymandering.” In an unexpected move former Business Secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, agreed with Mr Rotheram and said parties trying to gerrymander elections “end up finding their clever scheme comes back to bite them, as dare I say we found by insisting on voter ID for elections.”
Prof Jon Tonge, professor of politics at the University of Liverpool, said voter ID changes were not aided by a “grim” low turnout at the city’s polling stations. He said: “It’s a mixed picture because some people have been denied their democratic right, 500 people is a lot at local elections.
“Not enough people vote at local elections which is grim, so the last thing you want is to turn people away. It was the first time this was used so there were always going to be teething problems. It’s not going to go away, we’ll have to get used to it and for a general election, it could get more problematic. With a local election, it can be dealt with quite quietly.”
Earlier this year, members of Liverpool Council put forward a motion calling for the government to look again at voter ID changes. Among those pushing for the requirements to be halted was returning cabinet member Cllr Laura Robertson-Collins.
She said: "These figures are the tip of the iceberg really. I had half a dozen people say to me on the doorstep they didn't have the ID so they wouldn't go.
"I know from my own personal experience around polling day people didn't have it. It doesn't give me pleasure to be proven right that it was a solution to a problem that didn't exist.
"It may only be a small proportion but the principle is there and the numbers are very worrying and proof people were turned away." Former Liberal Democrat group leader, Cllr Richard Kemp, went one step further and called for the "odious" changes to be scrapped.
He said: "There are two things that strike me about this. Firstly, it emphasises how low the turnout was across the city with very few wards near or above what should be the minimum level of 40% turnout.
"Secondly, It would appear that the turnout is 3% lower than at the last elections across the city. We can only speculate about why but the figures that the chief executive has given are only for those who were turned away, some of whom returned.
"What we do not know is how many did not go to the polls at all because they knew that they did not have the required pieces of paper. Given the admission from Mr Rees-Mogg earlier this week that the changes were made to advantage the Tory party, even though they failed, this odious and unnecessary requirement of voter ID should be scrapped."
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