To ask if you knew you now need photo ID to vote at a polling station?

[DidyouknowyouneedID]

As of the local and Mayoral elections in May in England, you'll need to show photo ID at a polling station when you go to vote in person.

For Wales this also includes PCC elections and parliamentary seats.

If you don't have photo ID, you won't be given a ballot paper.

Here's a list of the accepted forms of photo ID that you need to take with you:

www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/voter/voter-id/accepted-forms-photo-id

And if you don't have accepted photo ID you can apply online for a Voter Authority Certificate before 25 April and take that with you:

www.gov.uk/apply-for-photo-id-voter-authority-certificate

Gee. I wonder why the left counts and the right does not?

It says why on the form!

What do you use it for?

I haven't used photo ID for years on end.

The tories are getting desperate. Guess who is less likely to have photo id?

Yes I did, saw a poster

I hadn't heard about this to be honest, so thanks for the heads up.

Foreign name and accent so maybe that makes difference.
Rentals, bank accounts, loans, contracts, passing new job recruitment paperwork, shopping. Everything.

Wow. I wasn't aware of this at all!

So let me get this straight... You need photo ID to vote, but if you don't have photo ID you can apply for a piece of paper that doesn't have a photo /nor is it ID, but with that they will let you vote 🤔🤔🤔🤔

You can still get a postal vote or apply for a voter id card.

Postal voting uses a lot more time and resources and is much easier to use fraudulently/coercively - e.g. a dominating/controlling person in a house could intercept all of the postal votes and send them all off according to their preference, even if they know the other adults in the house would vote differently.

Postal votes are a great idea for those who genuinely need them, but it's a terrible idea to encourage/force people who don't actually need them to use them.

Can you imagine being the poor person at the polling station turning away people who didn’t know or look like their ID? That’s going to suck for them.

No. I had no idea and I’m not really sure that I believe it. Can’t I just take along my polling card as usual?

I didnt know this. My mum doesnt have any photo id. She no longer has a bus pass, she doesnt have a driving licence and doesnt have a passport

I dont know if my dad changed his paper licence or not, if not he wont have any either. He didnt get a bus pass either

Ok I do believe it now I’ve googled it.

Just get your husband to vote for you. Eventually you probably won't need a vote anyway.

The piece of paper does indeed have your photo on it. You have to send a photo when you apply and it appears on the Voter Authority Certificate.
The VAC cannot be used for identification purposes other than at a polling station though.

Here in the 21st century we are taking bits of paper to a room in some village hall.

Why can’t we vote online ? We can invest money, pay bills, apply for passports, donate to charity all online. But not vote.

Surely online voting would be a higher priority than pointless ID to fix a nonexistent problem ?

You don't actually have to take your polling card to vote, no.
But from May you will have to take photo ID or they won't give you a ballot paper.

Oh does it have to be an annoying photo from the photo booth?

They need to apply for a Voter Authority Certificate then.

Alternatively they could apply for postal or proxy voting (a named person they trust votes at a polling station on their behalf.)

Anyone proxy voting will have to show their own photo ID.

That makes a bit more sense 😂😂 If it didn't have a photo, I was kinda thinking "what's the point"? Still going to cost people money to get a photo for it then isn't - why do the government think people just have money or the time to go and sort this shit out?

Because you don't need a passport to get the one on the right.

Not from a photo booth no - you can take one yourself and then add it to your online application for a VAC. The requirements for the photo are similar to a passport photo though. There's some more info here:

www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/voter/voter-id/applying-a-voter-authority-certificate

Well I guess that means I wont be voting. I don't have an Photo ID. Medically unable to drive, haven't got a passport and don't have money to fritter away on getting a photo from one of the booths (the one local to me is £7) and then all the hassle of applying for a Voter ID.

You take your own photo or get someone to take it for you - requirements are similar to a passport photo but it doesn't have to be taken in a photo booth.

www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/voter/voter-id/applying-a-voter-authority-certificate

No need to use a photo booth - just take your own or have someone take it for you. There are details of the requirements for photos at the bottom of this page:

www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/voter/voter-id/applying-a-voter-authority-certificate