Over 340 people turned away from General Election voting in Wiltshire
Electoral Commission figures show they hadn't brought ID with them
Over 340 Wiltshire residents were turned away from voting in the General Election after forgetting to bring a valid form of ID.
The Electoral Commission has released data that shows how many people were turned away from July’s General Election for not having ID and how many never returned to the polling station.
In Wiltshire, 344 voters were turned away - including 77 in the East Wiltshire constituency, 80 in the Salisbury area, and 55 in South West Wiltshire.
This was the first time that everyone across the UK was required to show an accepted form of photographic identification to be permitted a vote in a general election.
The data reveals that a significant number of voters chose not to return to the polling station with correct identification after being turned away.
In South West Wiltshire, 76% of these voters returned - but 98% came back in the Salisbury constituency and 95% in East Wiltshire.
The UK-wide figures released by the Electoral Commission show that 0.25% of people who tried to vote were initially turned away, but around two-thirds of those people returned later in the day with an accepted form of ID and were able to vote.
It also reveals that, in absolute numbers, around 16,000 people across Great Britain were unable to vote in person at the General Election due to the requirement to show ID at a polling station.
According to the Electoral Commission, some groups of people were significantly less likely to know about the requirement.
Awareness was lower among younger age groups (71% for 18 to 24-year-olds) and people from ethnic minority communities (76%).
The Elections Act 2022 introduced the need for voters to show an accepted form of photo ID to vote in person at a polling station for certain types of elections in Great Britain.
These changes to the electoral system were made through the Elections Act 2022, which made it compulsory to present ID at polling stations in an effort to strengthen the integrity of the electoral process.