The Royal Borough is reminding residents they’ll need to show an accepted form of photo ID in order to vote at a polling station in the Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) election.
By law, you will need to bring along and show accepted photo ID to polling station staff before you can be given a ballot paper on Thursday, 2 May. You will be able to use expired ID if you are still recognisable from the photo.
A wide range of photo ID are accepted including a UK, European Economic Area (EEA) or Commonwealth passport; a UK or EEA driver’s licence; and some concessionary travel passes, such as an older person’s bus pass or an Oyster 60+ card. The Resident Advantage Card is not an accepted form of ID for voting.
For any voters who forget to bring photo ID on the day, polling stations will be open from 7am until 10pm, so there will be plenty of opportunity to go home and return later with an accepted form of ID. Visit www.electoralcommission.org.uk/voterID to check the full list of accepted forms of ID.
You will not need to produce photo ID to vote by post or proxy, although your proxy will need to show their photo ID at the polling station. Due to national legal changes, you can only act as a proxy for two people living in the UK. If you act as a proxy for people living overseas, you can act as proxy for up to four people, but only two of these can be based in the UK.
If you are voting by post and have not yet returned your pack via Royal Mail, you can still hand it in at your polling station this Thursday and at the Town Hall during opening hours – but you must complete an additional form when handing it in for your vote to count. The council can no longer accept postal votes which are simply left in council letterboxes or at libraries.
There are also new limits on the number of postal votes a person can hand in on behalf of others. Voters will only able to hand in their own postal vote, and the postal votes of up to five other people, at a polling station or the Town Hall.
You can check your polling station location on your polling card (if you have one) or on our webpage. You can also check which borough ward you live within using our Neighbourhood Map.
Votes cast across the Thames Valley will be verified this Friday and counted on Saturday. Follow us on Facebook and X for the results. The verification and count are on separate days as some councils have local elections being counted on Friday.