Overview
- A government planning document outlines pilots for extended in-person voting, high‑footfall hubs and the option to vote at any polling station within a council area.
- Several councils have agreed to run the trials at May’s local elections, with ministers aiming to lay the necessary statutory orders by January.
- Mobile polling booths would visit universities, care homes and community centres to increase access for eligible voters.
- Officials say the programme could extend to schools once the voting age is lowered to 16, though a government spokesman says there are no current plans to pilot school voting.
- Ministers have excluded electronic and internet voting due to hacking risks, drawing on a POST paper that favours paper‑based systems, as Conservatives warn the changes could be partisan and raise security concerns.