Hundreds turned away from voting without ID

More than 300 people were refused a ballot paper at polling stations during Peterborough's local elections on 4 May because they failed to produce valid voter ID.

Peterborough City Council (PCC) has confirmed that 310 people who tried to vote in the city's elections were initially turned away.

Ofthese,200returnedlater in the day with valid ID, while 110 did not.

This means that, in total, justoveroneinahundredpeople who attempted to vote earlier this month were initially turnedaway(1.2percent)while 0.4 per cent were turned away and didn’t cast a vote at all.

The elections, which saw the Conservative Party strengthen its control of the council in Peterborough, were thefirstinBritaininwhichvoter ID was required.

Therequirementwasintroduced as part of the Elections Act2022,withtheGovernment claiming that it will “protect the integrity of our democracy and tackle electoral fraud”.

But critics questioned whethertherewastrulyaneed for this and argued that the requirement could disenfranchisevotersandharmturnout.

Last year, just 13 cases of alleged personation fraud – the kindoffraudcriticssayvoterID isattemptingtosolve–wererecordedintheUK,ofwhichonly seven were recorded at polling stations, a House of Commons (HoC) report says.

Nofurtheractionwastaken in any of the cases because of a lack of evidence or sufficient evidence.

Whetherornottherequirement affected turnout at this year’s elections will be the subject of an Electoral Commission report expected in September, with more Government analysis later.