Check your ID before 5pm — or your vote could be blocked in the General Election

Voters without the correct form of ID could be blocked from voting in the General Election unless they act before 5pm today.

For the first time ever at a general election, people across Great Britain will have to show ID when they vote on July 4. There are 20 forms of ID which will be accepted at polling stations, but if you do not have one (or it no longer looks like you), you will need to sign up for a Voter Authority Certificate by 5pm today (June 26).

You can sign up for a Voter Authority Certificate here until 5pm. You will need a digital photo of yourself and either your National Insurance number (found on payslips) or a document to prove your identity such as a birth certificate, bank statement, or utility bill.

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The 20 forms of ID which will be accepted at polling stations are:

• a UK or Northern Ireland photocard driving licence (full or provisional)

• a driving licence issued by an EU country, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, the Isle of Man or any of the Channel Islands

• a UK passport

• a passport issued by an EU country, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein or a Commonwealth country

• a PASS card (National Proof of Age Standards Scheme)

• a Blue Badge

• a biometric residence permit (BRP)

• a Defence Identity Card (MOD form 90)

• a national identity card issued by the EU, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein

• a Northern Ireland Electoral Identity Card

• a Voter Authority Certificate

• an Anonymous Elector’s Document

• an older person’s bus pass

• a disabled person’s bus pass

• an Oyster 60+ card

• a Freedom Pass

• a Scottish National Entitlement Card (NEC)

• a 60 and Over Welsh Concessionary Travel Card

• a Disabled Person’s Welsh Concessionary Travel Card

• a Northern Ireland concessionary travel pass

Your ID does not have to still be in date, but it has to still look like you and have the same name as you are registered to vote with (although small differences such as James instead of Jim do not matter). If you have changed your name, you can take a document which proves this to show why it is different on your ID than the electoral roll.

This is the first general election to happen with the requirement for voter ID in place. The first elections to happen under the new rules were the local elections which happened across the UK, including in North Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset in 2023.

In Bath and North East Somerset, 141 people were turned away from polling stations for not having the correct ID. 85 came back with the correct ID and voted but 56 ended up not casting their votes.

But many people will simply not have turned up to the polls if they realise they do not have the correct ID. James, who works in hospitality in Bath, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service on the day of the election that he was not going to vote as he did not have a form of ID. He said: “I wanted to vote in person because I enjoy it."

You can sign up for a Voter Authority Certificate until 5pm today here.