Accessible Voting

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Our Accessible Voting campaign

The government has announced plans to introduce a requirement for voters to show photo ID at polling stations from 2023.

It argues this will maintain the integrity of the ballot and diminish the risk of fraud.

However, evidence shows that if you’re young, from an ethnic minority, disabled or come from a poorer background, you’re much less likely to have valid photo ID and could therefore find it more difficult to cast your vote.

We’re campaigning to get the government to think again on this new requirement which we are concerned will present yet another barrier to blind and partially sighted people.

We produced the guidance below to help blind and partially sighted voters understand how to exercise their right to vote in an accessible way, and to help those delivering elections understand how to make the voting process as accessible as possible.

Need to know: casting your vote in the 2022 May elections  

Need to know: the four pillars of delivering accessible elections  

We wrote to the Minister of State for the Constitution and Devolution, Chloe Smith MP, alongside other organisations representing disability, and attended a virtual round table event in August to discuss this.

Read Chloe Smith’s response   

We welcome the Minister’s engagement with us, both in this detailed response and as part of the roundtable discussion.

We will continue to raise the concerns of blind and partially sighted people about the accessibility of voting and the additional barrier imposed on them by the introduction of compulsory photo ID at polling stations.

We will be contributing to the work of the Accessibility of Elections Working Group to help the Government improve the experience of the democratic process for blind and partially sighted people.