Rules requiring voters to show ID may have stopped 445,000 casting ballot, study finds

Around 450,000 people may have been turned away from polling booths in the General Election because they didn't bring the correct identification, figures have suggested.

More in Common, who organised the poll, found 3.2% of around 2,000 people surveyed were denied the opportunity to vote at least once because they lacked the right ID.

They used these numbers to estimate more than 850,000 people across the UK may have had the same experience.

More than half of these people - 445,000 - either gave up or returned and were still unable to vote.

Thursday's General Election marked the first time in the UK where bringing a valid form of ID was a requirement to receive a ballot paper.

Not all types of photo ID were accepted at polling stations, but among the permitted forms were passports, driving licences or blue badges.

The poll found that a third of people turned away had ID which was not on the list of valid ID, a quarter said the name on their ID was different from that listed on the electoral register, while 12% said they were told the picture on their ID did not match their appearance.

Ethnic minorities were disproportionately affected, and were twice as likely to be turned away than white people.

The survey found that 6.5% of voters of colour said they were turned away, compared with 2.5% of white voters.

Alba Kapoor, head of policy at the Runnymede Trust think tank, said: “As we warned, these voter ID laws are discriminatory by design; and must be scrapped.

“They are an attack on the democratic rights of people of colour, and leave people without a say in the running of our country.”

Photo ID rules were brought in by Boris Johnson’s government as part of the Elections Act 2022, as the then-government said they were necessary to combat the risk of in-person voter fraud.

The requirements were first enforced at the May 2023 local council elections in England.

Johnson was himself turned away from a polling station after forgetting to bring a photo ID in May’s local elections.

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