In accordance with Council Procedure Rule No. 3.4.3, Councillor P. Peacock moved and Councillor L. Brazier seconded a motion to the following effect:
“That this Council is seriously concerned that the current proposals to introduce Voter ID requirements in order to vote at the 2023 local elections in England will be unable to be implemented fairly which could lead to thousands of voters being turned away and result in legal challenges to election results.
Just months before the first provisions of the Elections Act 2022 are set to be enacted in May 2023’s local elections, very little has been done to ease widespread concerns about the impact of this legislation and accordingly this Council supports the calls for an inquiry into the implementation of Voter ID by the cross-party Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee.
As such the Council will write to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the Chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee requesting an inquiry into the implementation of Voter ID.”
The motion, on being put to the meeting, was declared lost with 9 votes for and 25 against.