Election administrators warn of disruption at next general election

Electoral administrators have warned of serious disruption to the next general election as voter ID is rolled out nationally by a workforce contending with significant staff shortages and complex and fragmented legislation that can be changed with scant notice.

With the additional costs of voter ID rules falling on already stretched local authorities, this new report published today by the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) explains that electoral administrators have for many years overcome resource constraints, complex legislation and a large number of unscheduled electoral events only by staff working far beyond their contracted hours.

Voter ID was implemented without significant visible problems at the local elections in May 2023. These local elections took place across 230 councils throughout England. However, the national roll out of voter ID (for what is widely expected to be a larger turnout for the next general election) adds another risk to the proper, legal, delivery of elections, with Wales, Scotland, London, Birmingham, Bristol and many other places in England having had no experience of implementing voter ID.

Worryingly, The Impact of Voter ID: The Views of Administrators revealed election staff are unconvinced they can deliver a successful general election with voter ID if Parliament called one ahead of January 2025, owing to the additional complexity of electoral law, the short timetables, the limited money and human resources available to administrators.

The administrators warned that they may not be able to service a greater demand for Voter Authority Certificates (VAC) in a general election with a higher turnout, particularly if there was a last minute rush. Voters will be turned away if they don’t have the correct ID at the polling booth and VACs were developed as a new form of free photo ID for use when voting in UK Parliamentary, PCC and English local elections.

The report reveals that 88% of election administrators surveyed said recruiting polling stations staff was a problem, with 82% saying that voter ID had made recruiting and retaining polling station staff more difficult. A lack of qualified staff to work at elections presents a very real risk to the effective administration of the next general election, as well as the long-term resilience of the profession. Furthermore, the dwindling availability of suitable locations (for example, scout huts or church halls), is raising alarm bells that in future, voters will need to travel further to vote with 67% of administrators identifying this as a problem.

The report concludes that if central government does not put in additional funding to make sure staff can be recruited, administrators believe that either they will fail to find enough people to work on the elections or the local authority will have to find a way to pay staff more from already stretched budgets

Jonathan Carr-West, Chief Executive, LGIU, said: “With a general election on the horizon – it is particularly important that electoral administrators have the resources they need to make elections happen. This doesn’t mean providing them with the bare minimum and ensuring that their dedication to the role means they fill any gaps with their goodwill. It means making sure that elections are treated as part of the critical infrastructure of the United Kingdom and that risks to election delivery are taken seriously and electoral administrators are listened to.

It is not possible for an election to be too resilient, and, as new unpredictable challenges arise, such as the risk of cyber-attacks, we need to be sure that the problems we already know about – limited resources, overworked staff, complicated legislation – are solved before election delivery comes under even more pressure.

On the surface, voter ID was implemented without significant visible problems at the elections in May 2023. But we should not be fooled into thinking that the electoral system is working perfectly. Elections only work because staff (who are working under immense pressure with very little capacity) stretch themselves even further. This year there was huge additional pressure in the form of voter ID requirements.

It is still not clear that voter ID brings any benefits to the process, and indeed the worries highlighted in our interviews are not addressed by the policy. Yet, it is here to stay. It is, therefore, vital that we learn lessons from the experience of administrators at the elections in May, to allow for the minimum possible chances of election failures when this policy is implemented on a larger scale.

Elections are an essential part of our democracy. Members of the public need to be certain that they are secure, inclusive, well-organised and – most crucially – that the results represent their genuine preferences about how the country should be run.”