By Cllr Jason Brock
The local elections in Reading are a little over three months away now, but I’d hazard a guess that most people in the town don’t yet know about a major change in the rules around how people can vote this year.
If you choose vote in person at your local polling station, for the first time ever you will need to bring photographic ID with you. If you don’t have the right ID, poll clerks will have no choice but to tell you to return home to collect it. We all fall back on our usual habits, so if you’ve voted at polling stations for many years, it’s a change in routine.
The new voter ID requirement for people voting at polling stations is the result of the new Elections Act, voted in by the Government last year and which go live for the first time at the local elections on Thursday, May 4.
As with most changes made by central Government, it will be left up to local councils to make it happen, with little or no resource.
I won’t list here all the forms of ID which are deemed acceptable by the Electoral Commission, but the important thing to remember here is that it is ID with a photo on it that is required, so things like your passport, driving licence, blue badge, etc.
You can find the full list here: www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/voter/voter-id.
Interestingly, your ID doesn’t have to be in date. It can have expired and still be valid to use at polling stations, like your old passport for example. The important thing is that it has a photo which bears a resemblance to you.
All you have to do then is remember to bring it with you on the day. Oh, and remember to register to vote if you haven’t already (it takes five minutes online at www.gov.uk/register-to-vote).
If you are one of those who do not have the right photo ID, you can apply for what is known as a Voter Authority Certificate, or VAC, for free instead. You can do that online at www.voter-authority-certificate.service.gov.uk/ and I’m told it’s a quick and easy process.
If you do not have access to the internet, you can instead phone the Council’s electoral services team on 0118 937 3717, and they can arrange for a paper copy of the application to be sent to you, which you can then return to the Civic Offices. All VAC applications will be processed and posted to the relevant home address for you to bring with you to the polling station on Thursday, May 4.
The deadline for applying for a VAC is by 5pm on Tuesday, April 25, but if you can do it now that would be better.
The last thing we want is for someone to miss out on their vote for who runs their local council because they’ve missed the deadline.
There is, of course, a quick and easy way to bypass all of the new rules, which is to apply for a postal vote.
We currently have nearly 22,000 residents registered as postal voters in Reading, which works out as around 18% of all votes received. I’d expect that number to grow with the introduction of these new rules.
The advantage of a postal vote – apart from being able to vote in the comfort of your home – is that’s you will have ample time in which to fill in your ballot paper and return it freepost to the Council.
In other words, it doesn’t all come down to having to get to a polling station on one specific day in May (while remembering your photo ID or VAC, and possibly avoiding a spring downpour).
You can find out how to apply for a postal vote – and, indeed, a proxy vote which is where someone votes on your behalf – via the Council’s website at www.reading.gov.uk/the-council-and-democracy/elections-and-voting/local-borough-elections-2023/
The deadline to apply for a postal vote for the May elections is Tuesday, April 18.
If this was all news to you, I’m glad you are now up to speed… and please don’t forget to tell your friends and family.
Cllr Jason Brock is the leader of Reading Borough Council and ward member for Southcote
