Could this disproportionately impede Tory voters?

The local elections on May 4th will be the first to be held where every voter will be asked to provide some form of photo ID when they seek to cast their vote at the polling station. Postal voting is not affected.

There is a long list of acceptable forms of ID including driving licences, passports and for the elderly their concessionary bus pass if they have one.

Verifying the ID is going to add to the burden of Poll Clerks at polling stations because they will need to do more than check the address before handing over the ballot paper. You can envisage problems in the final hour of polling when quite often there are long queues.

The second and more serious issue is that there will be a group of voters who simply don’t have the required ID. Unless they have the foresight to apply beforehand for a new form of voting identity then they could be barred from casting their vote.

What should worry the Tories is that they could suffer most because of their heavier reliance on older voters – the ones who might find it difficult to have the right ID

One statistic that stands out here is that barely 50% of 69 year olds choose to renew their driving licences ahead of their 70th birthday when all have to be renewed. So oldies are less likely to have them.

My guess is that the oldies are less likely as well to have passports though many do have bus passes.

Mike Smithson