IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/pscirm/v14y2026i1p106-123_7.html

Understanding the impact of the 2018 voter ID pilots on turnout at the London local elections: A synthetic difference-in-difference approach

Author

Listed:
  • Barton, Tom

Abstract

Do more restrictive voter identification (ID) laws decrease turnout? I argue that in the 2018 London Local elections this was the case. Bromley was the only London borough to pilot a more restrictive ID scheme. The scheme was assessed by the Electoral Commission and Cabinet Office but lacked a good estimate for the impact on turnout. Applying a synthetic difference-in-difference (DID) methodology, which has several benefits compared to traditional DID methods, to turnout data from 2002 to 2018 I show that turnout was between 4.0 and 5.0% points lower than otherwise would be expected. This indicates more restrictive ID laws can meaningfully limit turnout which has implications for future elections if governments chose to implement a more restrictive regime.

Suggested Citation

  • Barton, Tom, 2026. "Understanding the impact of the 2018 voter ID pilots on turnout at the London local elections: A synthetic difference-in-difference approach," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(1), pages 106-123, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:pscirm:v:14:y:2026:i:1:p:106-123_7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S204984702500007X/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:pscirm:v:14:y:2026:i:1:p:106-123_7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/ram .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.