Buxton church helps budding General Election voters with necessary photo ID support

Derbyshire residents who have been urged to register to vote in the General Election before the deadline are now being offered help in Buxton to make sure they have the necessary photo identification or a Voter Authority Certificate to complete their ballot paper choices.

The scheduled voting registration deadline of 11.59pm, on June 18, has soon crept up but as long as people have registered they still have until 5pm, on June 26, to sort out appropriate photo ID or an alternate Voter Authority Certificate which they will need at polling booths during the General Election, on July 4.

To help voters, Buxton Methodist Church, on the Market Place, has stepped up and is running a drop-in session on Saturday, June 22, for those who have registered to vote but do not yet have the correct form of voting photo ID and wish instead to apply for an acceptable, alternative Voter Authority Certificate.

The session will run from 9.30am until 1pm and those interested need only bring their National Insurance numbers to the Buxton Church where helpers will take their photographs and help with online applications for Voter Authority Certificates.

To be able to vote, people are required to show photo identification at polling stations and some acceptable forms of photo ID include a driving licence, passport, Blue Badge, PASS card, and an older person’s bus pass.

On election day, people will be expected to show one form of photographic identification to staff at the polling station, but it needs to be an original version and not a scan or photocopy.

People cannot use a picture of a document on their phones, and it must be the original document, and even if anyone has a form of accepted photo ID which is out of date it can still be used as long as it still resembles the voter.

Those without suitable photo identification can still apply free of charge for a Voter Authority Certificate containing a name and photograph by 5pm, on Wednesday, June 26, to be able to vote and Buxton Church is offering help for those interested in doing so.

The church has already been actively encouraging voter registration as part of the national Joint Public Issues Team’s call to ‘Love, Pray, Vote’ and its drop-in session for those wanting to apply for a Voter Authority Certificate will coincide with Transition Buxton’s Repair Cafe in the main hall.

It has advised that people can use a variety of documents for voter photo ID but if anyone thinks they do not have anything suitable then it is possible to apply for a Voter Authority Certificate before a 5pm, July 26, deadline but they will need to have registered to vote before the 11.59pm, June 18, deadline.

Budding voters wanting help in applying for Voter Application Certificates are advised to bring their National Insurance numbers with them to the Buxton Church event and helpers will take their photographs and help them to submit an online form so that they can receive the Voter Authority Certificate in time to vote in the General Election on July 4.

To find out more in Buxton and the High Peak about accepted forms of photo ID and applying for a Voter Authority Certificate, applying to vote by post or by proxy, advice is available by visiting High Peak Borough Council’s website https://www.highpeak.gov.uk/article/7921/Parliamentary-General-Election—4-July-2024 for details.

Information about Voter Authority Certificates, voting by proxy, and postal voting should be available on each constituency’s relevant local authority council website and VAC applications can be made at voter-authority-certificate.service.gov.uk.

In general, Voter Authority Certificate applicants will need a recent, digital photo of themselves and their National Insurance number and they will need to be registered to vote.