Postal voters without packs urged to contact councils

For those intending to vote in person on Thursday, reminders about new voter ID rules are being issued.

Since May 2023, voters have had to show a valid form of photo ID at polling stations to vote in person at UK elections.

Identification was required at last year’s Rutherglen and Hamilton West by election, but this is the first widespread vote in Scotland since the rules came into force.

The Electoral Reform Society (ERS) is concerned thousands of voters will be prevented from voting due to the new rules.

Speaking on BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Willie Sullivan, of the ERS, said: “It will exclude many people from voting, because particularly in Scotland this is the first time we’ve ever used it in elections.

“There’s going to be a lot of people who turn up at the polling station who don’t know they need voter ID and will be turned away.”

The ERS estimates that up to 14,000 people were prevented from voting at the 2023 local government elections in England, because they didn’t have voter ID.

Mr Sullivan said: “If one person doesn’t get to vote that’s bad enough, but we think thousands of people won’t get to vote.

“We think that will happen on Thursday in Scotland.”

A full list of acceptable forms of ID, which includes passports and a UK driving licence, can be found here, external.