Report on the May 2025 local elections in England

The most common reasons given for why people didn’t vote were consistent with our research after previous elections:

• too busy / busy at work (19%) 
• I was away on election day (11%) 
• I’m not interested in politics / I’m fed up with politics (10%)

Postal voters were more likely to vote

Postal voting at elections in Great Britain has increased over the last 20 years. A larger proportion of people have voted by post since the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the May 2025 elections, 2.4 million people were issued with a postal vote and 1.6 million votes were returned. That represents a turnout among postal voters of 69% (compared to an in-person turnout of 27%). Postal votes made up 34% of all the votes counted.

Voters want more information about who to vote for

Our research shows that people choose whether to vote for a number of overlapping reasons including:

• perceptions of politics as a whole
• views on the candidates or parties standing
• the expected competitiveness of the contest
• the perceived importance of the electoral event

Ensuring voters have access to information can also encourage people to vote. Most people said that they know about the electoral process:

• 77% said they knew enough about how to cast a vote
• 79% said they knew enough about the voter ID requirements

But many people said they didn’t have enough information on candidates and parties to make an informed decision about who to vote for:

• 60% of voters agreed that they had enough information to make an informed decision 
• 28% of people who didn’t vote said that they did have enough information to make an informed decision
• 54% of voters said there was enough local media coverage of the elections 
• 35% of people who did not vote said there was enough local media coverage of the elections

A lack of information on candidates was also the main reason given by people when we asked why they were not confident that the elections had been well run.

We know that there is a consistent lack of engagement with local elections. For example, this year most people (97%) in areas with elections said that they knew that a poll was taking place. However, fewer (55%) were able to give the correct date for polling day beforehand.

People were more likely to have seen misinformation online compared to offline. Younger people were also more likely to say they had seen misinformation than older age groups. A third (33%) of 18- to 24-year-olds said they had seen misinformation related to the electoral process. This compares to 18% of all voters and 12% of those aged 65 to 74.

When we asked people who didn’t vote to provide a reason why, 2% said voter ID. This increased to 3% when they were asked to choose their reason from a list. These figures are not directly comparable because different areas of England had different elections in each of these years.

These findings suggest that people are becoming more used to the rules. But it is likely that some people who don’t vote will continue give voter ID as their reason for not voting.

Low awareness is limiting uptake of the Voter Authority Certificate

Awareness of the free ID (called the Voter Authority Certificate) was still lower than awareness of the need to show ID. We found that 56% of people knew that a free ID was available from their local authority. This was slightly higher (62%) among those who said they did not already have a form of accepted ID.

Since the launch of the certificate in January 2023, there have been 225,000 applications for certificates. This is significantly less than the estimated 750,000 people that our research suggested do not have an accepted form of ID. Ahead of the May elections, there were only 11,000 applications for the free ID in England.

Electoral administrators provided equipment and support to voters

Almost all polling stations provided the minimum equipment as set out in our guidance to Returning Officers. Fewer polling stations provided more specialised equipment such as hearing induction loops or audio devices.

Table 1: Equipment provided at polling stations in county council and local government elections

Most electoral administrators told us that they had very few issues booking accessible polling stations. Most disabled voters (95%) said it was easy to get inside the polling station to vote.

Polling station staff felt that they had enough training. They were also confident in their ability to support voters with different needs, who required assistance.

However, disabled people who voted in a polling station were less confident – 51% agreed that staff at polling stations were properly trained to assist them in voting.

Some administrators (13%) said it was difficult for them to engage disability and civil society organisations. They highlighted that some regionally or nationally based organisations do not have local links. Other administrators also indicated that they often do not get a response from local organisations when they get in touch.

They also highlighted the lack of dedicated and expert equalities support within local authorities. This then leaves outreach work to the elections team.

Many voters were unaware of the support available in polling stations

Most disabled voters were not aware:

• of the requirement for Returning Officers to provide support and equipment in a polling station
• that anyone over 18 can accompany a disabled voter in the polling station to help them vote. This includes people who may not themselves be eligible to vote at the election

Only 12% of disabled people said they knew a ‘great deal’ or a ‘fair amount’ about the first of these options. Similarly, only 12% knew about the second option. Awareness was a bit higher among people who said their disability or heath condition limited them ‘a lot’ – 15% were aware of the first option and 14% were aware of the second.

Only 3% of disabled people who voted in-person said they needed additional assistance or equipment when voting in the polling station at the May elections. However, it is likely that others will have chosen not to vote because they needed assistance and did not know that support was available.

More positively, Returning Officers reported that they had more requests for additional support or equipment at the 2025 county and unitary council elections (171) compared to the 2024 UK general election (117). This is despite the 2025 elections happening in fewer areas. We cannot be sure of the likely future trend in these figures with data from only two years.

Abuse and intimidation can have a significant impact on candidates’ campaign activity. Almost three quarters (71%) of respondents said they avoided some kind of activity at least once due to a fear of abuse:

• Over two in five (44%) avoided campaigning on their own, with one in five (19%) avoiding this ‘very often’
• Two in five (41%) avoided using online media
• Over a third (36%) avoiding avoided talking about or giving their opinions on controversial topics

Women were more likely to avoid campaigning on their own (68%) than men (33%)

In previous research we found that respondents from ethnic minority backgrounds were more likely to experience serious abuse.1  Due to the demographic profile of the survey respondents, we haven’t been able to compare ethnicities.

Tackling harassment and intimidation of candidates

We asked respondents how effective they thought certain measures would be in addressing harassment and intimidation. The majority thought that political parties and social media companies addressing the problem would be most effective:

• 82% of respondents thought that social media companies having to reveal the identities of abusive users would be effective
• 85% of respondents thought that parties expelling candidates or activists who were responsible for inappropriate behaviour would be effective