Image: Wikimedia Commons/descrier.co.uk

Getting ready to vote!

Hastings Borough Council has issued a call for local residents to make sure they can vote in the general election on Thursday 4 July. As well as being registered, voters are nowadays required to show proof of their identity. Nick Terdre reports, research and graphics by Russell Hall.

Guidance on making sure you can vote in the general election in just over two weeks, including a reminder of deadlines, has been issued by Hastings Borough Council.

The prerequisite for taking part in this democratic exercise of choosing the next government is being registered to vote, for which the deadline is 11.59pm on Tuesday 18 June. The procedure for getting on the electoral register is easy enough and can be done online. In England the minimum age for voting is 18, but you can get registered once you are 16.

Since May last year it has been a requirement to show photo identification when voting in person. There are a variety of documents accepted for this purpose, starting with a passport and a photographic driver’s licence – which judging from the experience of last May’s local elections is the most popular.

But it can also be an older person’s bus pass, a Blue Badge, a national identity card issued by an EEA state, a biometric immigration document and various other documents, though only originals are accepted.

Those lacking these documents can apply to the council for a voter authority certificate. This can be done online or through the post or by applying in person. A digital photo is required as well as a national insurance number or some other document proving your identity.

The deadline for applying for a voter authority certificate is 5pm on Wednesday 26 June.

Voting does not have to take place in person. Postal votes are also available, and proxies can be appointed to vote on a person’s behalf. Information on how to apply for both is available here.The deadline for applying for a postal vote is Wednesday 19 June and for a proxy vote Wednesday 26 June.

Many young people are failing to take up their voting rights. According to media reports, while 96% of pensioners are registered to vote, there are claimed to be 4.3m first-time voters who are eligible but not registered. Members of ethnic minority groups are also less likely to be registered.

Chart showing proportion of those registered to vote who lack acceptable photo ID, according to age group. It is those aged 40 to 64 who mostly fall into this category.

Of those registered to vote, it is the middle-aged who are more likely to lack voter ID, as the above graphic shows. This is perhaps surprising, as this age group might be thought more likely to have a photographic driver’s licence than 18-year-olds.

In Hastings, the wards where voter registration is lowest are Hollington (89.1%), Castle (90%), Baird (90.2%), Wishing Tree (90.5%), and West St Leonards and Tressell (90.7%), as this interactive map based on estimates from polling company Survation shows. However, the ward with by far the highest proportion of registered voters lacking appropriate ID is Wishing Tree, with 16.4%. That is almost twice the rate of the second highest, Tressell, with 8.3%.

In Rother wards registration rates are higher, the lowest being 93% in Sidley, but the highest rate of registered voters without qualifying ID, at 18.8%, is in Bexhill Central.

In July the Electoral Commission expects to publish an initial analysis of the effect of the ID requirement on the local elections in May. In local elections held in May 2023, the first time the ID requirement was in force, it found that at least 0.25% of those who tried to vote, equivalent to some 14,000 people nationally, were unable to do so due to the voter ID requirement. Around 4% of those who did not vote cited the ID requirement as the reason.

Also in: Elections