A series of major changes to UK elections including voter ID and an imminent revamp of Commons constituencies is leaving electoral administrators overwhelmed and risks bringing chaos to polling stations, officials and opposition parties have warned.
Final Commons boundary changes, being announced next week for England and Scotland, will automatically take effect for any subsequent general election, requiring vast efforts to allocate officials and polling stations to the redrawn constituency maps.
This will also be the case for Wales and Northern Ireland, which are releasing the final changes to slightly different timetables.
More pressing still is a law that will require all voters to show photographic identification to cast a vote, beginning with local elections in England next May.
The Electoral Commission and the Association of Electoral Administrators (AEA), which represents election staff, say there is minimal time remaining to introduce voter ID, with details of how the system will work in practice yet to be published.
The department for levelling up, housing and communities (DLUHC), which oversees elections, is due to publish secondary legislation on issues including the types of ID allowed and measures to provide documents to voters without the necessary paperwork this week, but has yet to do so.
Voter ID will apply to all subsequent English and UK parliamentary elections, as will a series of changes being introduced later, including new rules for postal and proxy votes, changes to voting rights for some EU nationals, updated accessibility guidelines for polling stations, and permitting votes from UK nationals who have lived abroad for 15 or more years.
Peter Stanyon, the chief executive of the AEA, said all this, plus the work required to implement boundary changes, presented significant issues.
“This is a hugely challenging timetable and if all things go well, then brilliant,” he said. “It will be delivered, but the time to bed these things in has run out for voter ID and is rapidly running out for other areas.
“It’s not even a question of having pilots – they’re going in for real. People will step up, but will it be as well-run as you would like? It’s arguable.”
A particular worry, Stanyon added, was a loss of volunteer elections staff due to worries about having to turn away voters without ID and implement other changes. “We can foresee individuals being put in very difficult situations, where they are quite legitimately saying no, and it creates difficulties,” he said.
“Equally, they could make a mistake, which takes away some certainty in how the system works. Everyone will be working flat out to make sure it works, but this is a massive challenge. We are receiving anecdotal feedback already that when people see what they now need to do, some are thinking: is it worth it?”
As an official watchdog, the Electoral Commission does not generally comment on such issues, but in September it took the unusual step of warning that the delays in setting out details of changes such as voter ID risked confusion and that “many” elections team had reported difficulties finding staff or suitable venues.
The Commission is understood to still be worried that the secondary legislation on voter ID has yet to materialise, and that without this, it and other groups cannot prepare properly for upcoming elections.
Labour has opposed voter ID and what it called an over-rigid system for boundary changes. It accepts they will take place, but is concerned about the potential for chaos.
“They are going to happen, but they are going to be confusing and challenging for administrators,” a Labour source said. Pushing through voter ID for May, they added, was “really, really unwise” given the lack of time.
A government spokesperson said: “We cannot be complacent when it comes to ensuring our democracy remains secure, which is why we are stamping out the potential for voter fraud. These changes are being carefully implemented and we are working closely with the sector as we deliver on these reforms.”
