Voters down south looking to elect some new councillors on Thursday couldn’t just take their polling card and walk into the local primary school, village halls or cricket pavilion or croquet hut or wherever the English vote.

New laws to combat electoral fraud meant they also needed to take some form of photographic ID.

The Elections Act 2022 means voters who do not have the correct document – such as a driving licence, passport, blue badge – can be turned away from the ballot box by polling clerks.

The new law will have only limited impact up here, as it covers only Westminster elections for us. Holyrood and Scottish Council votes remain ID free.

Scotland's first brush with the new law could come sooner rather than later thanks to the likely by-election in Rutherglen and Hamilton West.

Currently, we’re in a state of stasis over the South Lanarkshire vote, after Margaret Ferrier appealed against a possible 30-day suspension from the Commons for breaching Covid rules.

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It's not clear on what grounds the disgraced politician is fighting the proposed sanction or how long the appeal process will take, but I’ve yet to speak to anyone familiar with the case who thinks she might be successful.

As you may know by now, if she is suspended for the 30 days, or even if her punishment is reduced on appeal but is still more than 10 days, that will automatically trigger a recall petition.

Here’s a thing that not many people seem to have picked up on, but recall petitions are also covered by the new legislation.

That means, in a UK first, any Rutherglonian looking to sign that petition will need photographic ID.

Interestingly, had Ferrier not appealed her sentence then the petition would have opened before the May 4 implementation date.

It may not have been intentional, but the former SNP MP may have possibly made it just that little bit harder for her constituents to get rid of her.

We’ll maybe get a better sense on Friday as the results come in for England’s elections about the scale of the impact of voter ID on turnout, particularly if it made people stay away or if people were turned away for not having the right ID or no ID.

There are real fears that the change could disenfranchise the young, minorities, the poor, basically those less likely to have a passport or driver's licence.

In a cost of living crisis, if money’s tight and you’re not going abroad, do you really want to spend £93 renewing your passport?

It’s worth pointing out that one of the most ridiculous rules in England – that older people can use their travel cards as ID while young people can’t – won’t apply up here.

The numbers here are tricky.

Research carried out for the government found that 98 per cent of people in the UK had some form of photo ID.

Though this figure dropped to...

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