Who lacks voter identification? The electoral implications of the Elections Act 2022

Abstract

The Elections Act 2022 requires voters to present photo identification at general elections in Great Britain and local elections in England. In this article, we use data from the British Election Study Internet Panel to identify who does and does not own the necessary photo documents and how this affected turnout in the 2023 and 2024 local elections, as well as the 2024 General Election. We find that around 5% of the voting-age population lack valid voter identification and that this is related to age, education, socio-economic status, and social grade. The data also give us a reliable indication of the party-political impact of the photo ID requirement. We find that conservative voters are more likely to hold valid photo identification than supporters of other parties. We also find that a small but significant proportion of registered voters (between 1.2% and 2.4%) reported either being turned away or dissuaded from voting at these elections because of the requirement.