Data on number of people in Wyre Forest using photo ID in general election
News release issued:
Virtually all electors voting in polling stations in the Wyre Forest on Thursday 4 July took an acceptable form of photo ID.
Information released today (Tuesday 16 July) by the (Acting) Returning Officer for Wyre Forest, Ian Miller, shows that an estimated 99.9% of 33,155 electors voting in Wyre Forest’s 52 polling stations brought photo ID that met the voter ID requirements of the Elections Act 2022.
The available data show that, by the end of the polling day, 21 electors who tried to vote in a polling station were not given a ballot paper because they did not meet the voter ID requirements that came into force in May 2023. This represents only 0.1% of electors who asked to be issued with a ballot paper in a polling station. The available data show that, while 50 electors were initially turned away, 29 returned with acceptable ID and were able to vote.
The figures for electors turned away and those who did not return are lower than in the local elections in May 2024, when 65 electors were initially turned away and 29 did not return - and the figures on Thursday 4 July are relatively much lower when the higher turnout for the general election is considered.
The Acting Returning Officer said:
“At the general election, the message seems to have got through better that electors need photo ID if they want to be able to vote in person. While the data are incomplete - because the relevant information is regrettably not available from one polling station – it is pleasing to see that an even higher proportion of electors in Wyre Forest brought suitable photo ID with them than at the local elections in May. The local efforts to raise awareness and the national campaigns by the Electoral Commission seem to have been effective.
“The rules on photo ID apply to all electors without exception. A quarter of the electors who were initially refused a ballot paper because they had no or the wrong ID were in just one ward, Wyre Forest Rural. They included at least one individual who tried to present a shotgun certificate, which is not an acceptable form of ID. We will continue to remind people of the types of photo ID that can be used before each election.”