Voters in a muddle over acceptable forms of photo ID

VOTERS have been hitting the polls over the last 12 hours to cast their ballots, but reports throughout the day have suggested many have run into issues or faced confusion over new rules brought in by the Tories.

A week of drama over people not receiving their postal votes on time during the Scottish school holidays has been followed up by news of others being turned away from polling stations because they have not brought acceptable photo ID with them.

A staggering poll conducted for Byline Times suggested 47% of Brits thought their polling card was a sufficient form of ID, while 7% had no idea you even needed to bring such a thing.

The possibility of widespread disenfranchisement at this election is deeply worrying. Scottish Green candidate Draeyk van der Horn went round a few polling stations in the Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey constituency this morning and every single one reported having had to turn away someone who did not have ID.

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Gone are the days where you could just rock up, say your name, do your bit for democracy and then get on with your day. You now have to bring a passport, driver’s licence or some other form of acceptable ID with you in order to vote and if you don’t have it, you’ll have to go and get it and come back later.

We don’t yet know how many people have been turned away from polling stations because of not having ID, but this data is collected and will be made public. We’ll be sure to share it with you when it is available.

It’s a controversial rule, especially given personation – or stealing someone’s vote – is very rare in the UK.

Over the past five years, according to the Electoral Commission, there has been no evidence of large-scale electoral fraud. Of the 1462 cases of alleged fraud reported to police between 2019 and 2023, just 11 led to convictions and the police issued four cautions.

Last year, Jacob Rees-Mogg suggested the Tories introduced the policy to boost their election chances but it came “back to bite them” and they had “upset a system that worked perfectly well”.

READ MORE: Scottish party leaders make final General Election pitches

But, however annoying it is, it’s a rule we’re going to need to live with for now. So if you are going to be voting over the next few hours, please do remember to take ID with you and check what is acceptable here.

Thankfully, in Scotland, it’s not going to be something we have to deal with at every election, as ID is not required to vote at Holyrood or council elections.

And if we become independent one day, we’ll get away from these ridiculous Westminster rules that attempt to deny our right to vote.