More than a hundred people were unable to cast their vote at the local election because they did not have the right photo ID.

Brighton and Hove City Council confirmed that 122 residents who were registered to vote were turned away from polling stations on election day.

Another 213 people turned up without an accepted form of photo ID, but later returned and were able to vote.

However, of those who turned up at polling stations to vote, 99.8 per cent were able to cast their ballot without incident.

Voters without a suitable form of photo ID were able to apply for a free Voter Authority Certificate.

Brighton and Hove City Council confirmed that they received 672 applications from residents for photo ID in the run-up to the local election.

Turnout across the city was 83,426 - 40.8 per cent of the city’s electorate of 204,255 voters.

The local elections were the first poll in Brighton and Hove in which photo ID was required in order to vote.


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A council spokesman said: “The elections team will be sharing their learning, processes and newly-developed documents with the Electoral Commission, Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Association of Electoral Administrators so that they can be incorporated into best practice and shared with other authorities for future polls.”

The city’s local election earlier this month saw several recounts take place due to close results, with former deputy council leader Hannah Allbrooke losing her place in the council chamber by just six votes.

It comes amid calls for remarks made by former cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg to be investigated after he claimed that introducing voter ID laws was an attempt at “gerrymandering”.

Speaking at the National Conservativism conference in London earlier this week, Mr Rees-Mogg said: “Parties that try and gerrymander end up finding their clever scheme comes back to bite them, as dare I say we found by insisting on voter ID at elections.”

Labour MP Dawn Butler described the comments as “deeply concerning” and suggested that she may report them to the Parliamentary Standards Authority or the police.

She said: “The former minister admitted that the proposal was a deliberate attempt to manipulate electoral outcomes in favour of the Conservative Party.

“It is deeply concerning to see the blatant could-be politicisation of policy and organisation intended to ensure the fairness and security of our democratic process.”

The Argus:

Shadow minister and MP for Hove Peter Kyle said that Labour would oppose voter ID laws “at every possible step”.

He said: “Labour has always said that the introduction of voter ID is a solution in search of a problem.

“All the evidence shows that voter impersonation is really rare. So rare, in fact, that a voter is more likely to be struck by lightning over 50 times than have someone impersonate them at a polling station.

“My Labour colleagues and I will continue to oppose this disastrous and unnecessary policy at every possible step.”