The July general election was the first UK-wide vote since new voter ID rules were introduced by the Elections Act 2022. Ralph Scott and Edward Fieldhouse examine recent data to show what voter groups are without an accepted form of voter ID and how the new rules affected turnout. They argue that the list of permissible forms of ID should be expanded and that more needs to be done to educate electors about the rules.

The 2024 general election was the first in history where British voters had to show photo identification at the polling station before they could vote.

While some in England would have experienced these restrictions when voting in the 2023 and 2024 local elections, the general election would have been the first time most voters were affected.

Despite some high-profile reports of people being turned away as they couldn’t produce the necessary ID (including former Prime Minister Boris Johnson), it is less well-known what effect this new requirement had on voting behaviour across the board. In a new article appearing in Parliamentary Affairs we investigate this question, using unique data on voter ID ownership from the British Election Study Internet Panel.

Background on voter ID in Great Britain

The ostensible reason for the introduction of voter ID in the Elections Act 2022 was to prevent electoral fraud and to increase confidence in the integrity of elections.

However, critics have charged that there was little evidence to suggest that electoral fraud and ‘personation’ are widespread problems, and that the true goal of the stricter voter identification rules was to secure the Conservatives an electoral advantage.

Evidence from the US suggests that stricter voter identification requirements – particularly requiring photo identification – does depress turnout, especially among less educated and lower income populations but that this impact is only modest.

Supporters of voter identification argue that the requirement is widespread across most democratic countries (and indeed was already in place in Northern Ireland), and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights – an international election monitoring organization – also previously recommended the introduction of voter ID in Great Britain. Smaller pilots of the approach carried out by the Electoral Commission in 2018-19 found an increase in voter confidence and little impact on turnout.

So what are the actual effects of voter ID on voting in Britain? To investigate this, we use four waves of the British Election Study Internet Panel to estimate who lacks ID, and how that affected their ability to vote in the local and general elections.

Who lacks ID?

We find that, overall, at the time of the 2023 and 2024 local elections in England, approximately one in 20 electors did not own any recognised voter identification, and that this lack of ID was concentrated among poorer and less educated voters.

Specifically, in 2024, 9.7% of those with no qualifications (that is, no formal qualifications such as GCSEs) had no ID, while only 2.5% of those with postgraduate qualifications lacked ID. There is also a clear relationship with class: 8.2% of semi and unskilled manual workers (social grade D) had no ID compared to 2.4% of higher and intermediate managers and professionals (social grade A/B). Likewise, there is a strong income gradient: 15% of the poorest households (on an income of under £5,000 per year) had no photo identification compared to 1.6% of those with a household income greater than £60,000.

In terms of other demographics, there were no major differences in ID ownership by ethnicity or gender. However, there is an important but complex relationship between age and ID.  Passport holding declines with age, while (as shown in Figure 1) photo driving licence ownership increases until age 30 as people learn to drive and then declines before rising again at the age of 70.

Figure 1 Proportion having photo driving licence by age, May 2024 (GAM-smoothed) 

The decline before age 70 reflects the introduction of photo licences in 1999 – some of those aged 50-70 still retain non-photo licences – but it increases at age 70 because those over 70 must reapply for their licence every three years. Additionally, several forms of ID, such as older person’s bus passes, are only available to people over a certain age. The combined impact of these patterns leads to a jump in having an ID after age 65.

There is also a meaningful difference in ID ownership by disabled people, who were much more likely to lack ID (7.7%) than those without a disability (4.7%).

Dynamics of ID ownership

Of course, lacking photographic identification is not necessarily a permanent state. Some people will be in the process of renewing passports and driving licences or other forms of identification, while others may become eligible for a new type of identification or might apply for a Voter Authority Certificate (although we found take up of these was generally low, at only 0.3% of voters).

One of the advantages of the BES panel study is that we can investigate this by tracking the same people over time, between May 2023 and May 2024. While most people (more than nine out of 10) had some form of ID in both survey waves, only 2.7% of all respondents had no ID in both. Of the 4.1% of respondents who lacked ID in 2023, around a third (1.4% of all respondents) had gained access to some form of valid photographic ID one year later. On the other hand, there was a significant number of respondents who had previously held ID but reported having none in 2024 (2.1%).

This suggests a degree of fluidity, and that while voter ID poverty may not be permanent for many, it may affect a larger number of people at one point in time than the snapshot figure implies. Between 2023 and 2024, for example, nearly 7% of respondents were without ID at some point.

Party political implications

We also find that inequalities in voter ID access have party political implications. Given that parties of the right have historically been assumed to benefit from more restrictive identification requirements, it is perhaps not surprising that our evidence suggests that the Conservatives are most likely to benefit from the requirement, based on recent patterns of support (Figure 2).

Figure 2 Percentage of party supporters (general election vote intention) without photo ID, May 2023 (lighter column) and 2024 (darker column)

The most obvious reason that Voter ID access is high amongst Conservative supporters is that it is strongly associated with those social and demographic characteristics which are related to Conservative voting. Despite changes in social patterns of party support since the 2016 Brexit referendum, Conservative voters are (increasingly) older, and still more affluent and therefore more likely to own photographic identification.

The selection of the types of identification which are allowed − especially the inclusion of travel passes for older people, and not younger people − exacerbates these differences.

Impact on turnout

Did the new requirement actually prevent people from voting?  To find out, at each of the 2023 and 2024 local elections and the 2024 general election, we asked respondents a series of questions about their turnout behaviour including whether they voted, how they voted (e.g. by post, by proxy, in person) and, if they did not vote, the reasons for that. They were also asked whether their photographic identification was checked at the polling station and if they were turned away because of lack of voter ID.

Figure 3 (below) shows the percentage belonging to each category broken down by possession of valid photo ID for each election.

As expected, we found the proportion who did not attempt to vote because of identification requirements was much higher amongst those who reported having no identification.

Over 80% of those lacking ID did not attempt to vote in the 2023 and 2024 local elections, and over 60% refused to do so in the general election, but of these, the majority gave reasons other than their lack of valid documents. Nevertheless, sizeable proportions of those without identification reported not attempting to vote in these elections and gave that as the primary reason (25.2% in 2023 local elections, 15.2% in 2024 local elections and 12.5% in the 2024 general election).

Figure 3 Classification of turnout by possession of voter identification, 2023 and 2024 local elections and 2024 General Election

Overall, the total proportion of all those eligible to vote in the May 2023 elections reporting that they did not attempt to vote because they lacked identification or were turned away for that reason was 2.4%. This constitutes a significant number of disenfranchised electors, comprising 1.9% who were discouraged and 0.5% who were turned away.

The equivalent figures were slightly lower in the 2024 local elections: 1.2% did not attempt to vote because of lack of ID and 0.3% reported being turned away (making 1.6% overall with rounding). In the 2024 general election, 1% didn’t attempt to vote due to lacking ID and 0.3% reported being turned away (making 1.3% overall). This represents a small but meaningful population of voters (over half a million people) who were unable to vote due to the new legislation.

Our estimates of those turned away and those discouraged are in line with equivalent estimates made by the Electoral Commission, giving confidence in our findings. While reporting from polling stations can provide accurate numbers of how many people were turned away, survey data is necessary to estimate how many people were discouraged from voting, making this an important contribution of our study.

Ways forward

Notwithstanding the relatively small but meaningful percentage of electors directly affected, the choice to vote − or not to vote – is an important democratic right, so we should not only be concerned about the direct impact on voter turnout but on the wider implications of making it harder for some groups to take part in elections.

There are still opportunities to mitigate the negative effects of the requirement, for example by extending the forms of identification allowed (especially for young people and those living outside of London), by allowing a system of vouching for people lacking photo ID, and by improving public awareness of both the requirements and the availability of Voter Authority Certificates.

While around 5% of the electorate lacking voter identification may sound like a small proportion, with a UK electorate of 49 million, that equates to almost two million potential voters. Those interested in building trust in our democracy should consider not only minimising electoral fraud but reducing this number by as much as possible.

About the authors

Ralph Scott is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in Politics at the University of Bristol.

Edward Fieldhouse is Professor of Social and Political Science at the University of Manchester and Director of the British Election Study.

Featured image: (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) by European Parliament