By Ethan Davies

New laws have been brought in which require voters to take photo ID to the polling station in order to cast their ballot.

The laws came in last year for local elections, and with Greater Manchester's 10 councils holding new elections on May 2 — the same day the city-region elects a new mayor — it will be in force once more. It means that you will need to register to vote and take an accepted form of identification with you to the polling station in order to have your say.

Residents need to be registered to vote in one of Greater Manchester's 10 boroughs — Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, and Wigan — with registrations closing at 11:59pm on April 16. You can register online here, or access a form to register by post here.

After doing that, most voters will take a driving licence or passport to the polling station — although a much wider range of IDs are accepted — but you don't need to have an in-date ID. If it's out of date, but the photo on it still looks like you and it has the name on which you used to register to vote, it will be accepted.

But there is another method to vote which doesn't use a photo ID. That is called a Voter Authority Certificate (VAC).

VACs only require applicants to give their name, address, and date of birth, to be accepted — but they also ask for a national insurance number to speed up the identification process. However, if you don't know your NI number and can't find it, you can still apply for a VAC.

"You will need to provide other forms of proof of identity, such as a birth certificate, bank statement and a utility bill. Your local council will contact you to arrange this," the Electoral Commission says. 

"If you don't have any other accepted proof of identity, you can ask someone you know to confirm your identity. This is known as an attestation."

The deadline to apply for a VAC is 5pm on Wednesday, April 24. You can apply online here or access a form to apply by post here. If you have any questions, you can call a helpline on 0800 328 0280.

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