How will new voting rules affect the local elections?

Many voters will face new rules on 2 May, including a requirement for voter ID and the end of second-preference votes, writes John Rentoul

Millions of voters will come across the new rules for the first time next week (PA)

The Elections Act 2022 made two important changes to voting in Great Britain. These came into effect last year, but there will be millions of voters who will come across the new rules for the first time in the local elections next week.

The first change is the requirement to show an approved form of photo identification at the polling station. This has long been required in Northern Ireland, but is now the law in the rest of the UK, and will be a requirement at the coming general election, which must be held by January next year.

The other change is the end of the supplementary vote system in mayoral and police and crime commissioner elections. People used to have two votes in these elections, a first preference and a second preference. Now we have a single vote, as in parliamentary and local council elections, and the candidate with the most votes wins – there are no second preferences for eliminated candidates to count, even if the winner secures fewer than 50 per cent of the votes.