New research on voter ID requirements in UK elections has found that the measure may “significantly reduce” turnout, raising pressure on ministers to reform the law.
An expert at King’s College London has found that the ID requirement - introduced under the previous Tory Government - reduced turnout by 4.4 per cent when the measure was initially trialled at a local election in Bromley.
While Whitehall sources had said in the months following Labour’s election victory that the new Government was open to the possibility of scrapping voter ID entirely, the minister for democracy Rushanara Ali recently confirmed that this was no longer “on the table”.
Instead, a spokesman said in response to KCL’s analysis that the Government is “addressing the inconsistencies in voter ID rules that prevent legitimate voters from voting”. This includes expanding the types of ID allowed to include Veteran Cards and others.
The requirement for voters to show photo ID to cast their ballots has applied for all votes in England since the 2023 local elections. However, the measure was first tested in a set of pilot schemes during 2018’s local elections, in Bromley, Gosport, Swindon, Watford and Woking.
The new research from KCL’s Dr Tom Barton found that “out of the 240,249 people registered to vote in 2018 in Bromley, 10,571… did not vote who would have otherwise done”.
Campaigners said the research “further confirms” their fears that the ID requirement has effectively disenfranchised a substantial number of voters across the country.
Darren Hughes, chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society, said: “We already know that voter ID has seen people turned away over 40,000 times from polling stations due to lack of acceptable ID and not return at the elections it has been used.
“These findings further confirm that voter ID is having a damaging and disproportionate impact on our democracy. That is why the government should scrap voter ID altogether, or at the very least greatly widen the options people can use at polling stations.”
While previous analyses by the Electoral Commission and the Cabinet Office have focused on people who attempted to vote but did not have the correct ID, Dr Barton told the Standard it was important to get a better understanding of how many people didn’t attempt to vote at all due to the requirement.
He pointed out that the Bromley trial was less strict in terms of what forms of ID were accepted, compared with the current laws now in place across England - meaning that the impact on turnout nationwide could potentially be even greater.
“In that [pilot] scheme, you could have either a form of photo ID, or two forms of non-photo ID, like a bank statement and a credit card. One of those non-photo IDs had to have your proof of address on it though,” he said. Under the current law, only photo ID is accepted.
Similarly, voters in Bromley also had a larger range of possible ID-types to choose from in the first place, thanks to the area’s status as a London borough, such as the 60+ Oyster card.
Despite this however, the Bromley trial appeared to show that older people were particularly adversely affected by the ID requirement, as it seemed to have a bigger impact in parts of the borough with higher concentrations of retired residents.
This point was famously alluded to by Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, when he told the 2023 National Conservatism conference: “Parties that try and gerrymander end up finding that their clever scheme comes back to bite them, as dare I say we found by insisting on voter ID for elections.
“We found that the people that didn’t have ID were elderly - oh, and they by and large voted Conservative, so we made it hard for our own voters and we upset a system that worked perfectly well.”
Dr Barton also acknowledged however that “as these laws are in place over time, people get used to them and adapt, so we would expect the number of people being excluded to come down, based on that”.
He added: “But there should still be some [people excluded] - because if you’ve just turned 18, you might not have an ID and it’s your first time voting, your turnout is likelier to be lower anyway.
“[Also] if you’re older and, say, you have your driving licence taken away, or you don’t renew it, or you don’t renew your passport because you don’t travel abroad anymore… People go from having ID, to not, and vice versa.”
Dr Barton pointed out that while the UK has now brought itself into line with many other developed democracies by requiring voter ID, lots of those other countries - particularly in Europe - tend to give their citizens a Government-issued ID card when they turn 18.
In Canada, which accepts 55 different forms of ID at elections, a system also exists by which voters without ID can be “vouched for” by another voter who does have ID, he said.
A spokesman at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said in response to the research: “We are committed to strengthening the security of our democracy and making sure every legitimate voter can exercise their democratic right to vote.
“As set out in the manifesto, we are looking at improving voter registration and addressing the inconsistencies in voter ID rules that prevent legitimate voters from voting.”
