Government legislation that requires voters to bring ID on polling day did not have an impact on turnout in Newcastle, council officers have stated.
This is despite the fact that new figures from Newcastle City Council have shown that voter turnout at the General Election fell noticeably when compared to 2019’s figures. Just over half of voters cast their ballot in Newcastle Upon Tyne Central and West.
Overall, the city averaged saw 60% of residents heading to the polls in July, a big drop on the 67% turnover seen at the 2019 General Election. The constituency with the lowest turnout was Newcastle Upon Tyne Central and West, with just 54% while Hexham The highest the Hexham constituency – which includes part of Newcastle at Callerton and Throckley – came in at 68.4%
Speaking at Monday’s meeting of the council’s constitutional committee, a spokeswoman for the council’s elections services department said: “We have seen the introduction of new legislation including voter ID. We don’t recognise any turnout decline.
“Looking at those stats, we’re fairly confident that the electorate have not been put off coming out to vote and engage.”
Elsewhere , turnout in this year’s local elections, as well as a recent by-election, were more consistent with previous years – albeit significantly lower than at the parliamentary election. Officers said that the local election’s turnout of 37.4% was “about average”. The recent by-election in North Jesmond saw a turnout of 23.8% which was described as “fairly good”.
Liberal Democrat councillor Colin Ferguson raised concerns about the delivery of postal votes in the recent by-election.
He said: “On the back of the by-election, postal votes went out quite late and some people didn’t receive their postal votes until the week of polling day. It was to the point that I was speaking to one man who assumed it was still several weeks to go. Did you pick up anything – is there something to learn from how late they were?”
Officers said that the council was trying to push change to the electoral timetable that would allow postal vote forms more time to be ordered, printed and delivered. However, it was noted that while other constituencies saw significant delays during the general election, the city council received very few complaints.
