Get ready to vote ahead of May’s local polls

By Barrie Hudson barrie@positive-media.co.uk

With the local elections approaching on Thursday, 4 May, there are some key deadlines for voters to remember:

- Monday, 17 April (11:59pm): you need to be registered to vote by this date. You normally only need to register once, not for every election. Anyone who has changed their name, address or nationality will need to register again. It takes five minutes to register to vote onlinesearch ‘register to vote’.

- Tuesday, 18 April (5pm): deadline for postal vote applications and Tuesday, 25 April (5pm): deadline for proxy vote applications (when someone votes on your behalf). Details of how to apply for both voting options can be found on Swindon Borough Council’s website.

Following national changes as part of the Elections Act 2022, anyone voting at a polling station must now show an accepted form of photo ID – this applies to the Borough and Parish elections taking place in Swindon on Thursday, 4 May.

Accepted forms of photo ID include passports, photographic driving licences, biometric immigration documents and some concessionary travel passes. A poll card is not accepted as a form of ID.

Voters can still use expired ID, as long as it still looks like the individual and the name on the ID matches the one they’ve registered to vote with.

Postal voting will remain the same. Those voting by proxy will need to make sure that the person going to vote on their behalf takes their own ID, and not ID for the person they are voting for.

What to do if you don’t have any ID:

Anyone who doesn’t have a form of accepted photo ID can apply for a free Voter Authority Certificate (VAC). This can be done:

- By applying onlinesearch ‘Apply for photo ID’ on the Government’s GOV. UK website

- By post - call Swindon Borough Council on 01793 445 500 to request a paper form

- In person - visit the Reception of Civic Offices, Euclid Street, Swindon, SN1 2JH on any working day between 9.30am and 4pm

For a full list of accepted forms of identification and further details on how to apply for the VAC, head to the Council’s website: www. swindon.gov.uk/voterID