Trials of a new voter identification system where electors must show ID before casting their ballot has led to people being turned away at the polling station, or abandoning their attempt to vote in the face of long queues.
"It's a big issue," Ellie Reeves, MP for Lewisham and Penge, told BuzzFeed News. "I went to vote at 8:30 this morning and asked the polling clerks whether anyone had turned up without ID, and they said two people had been turned away."
Reeves said she lives in "the most suburban" part of Bromley, where the system is being trialled, and said problems were greater in areas with more marginalised groups, where voters are less likely to have the relevant documentation.
As well as Bromley, voter ID trials are in place in Bromley, Gosport, Swindon, Watford, and Woking.
I had to show ID to vote for the first time this morning and it made me uneasy, how easy was it for people without ID to get hold of a free certificate in time? A few people saying theirs haven't come through... #LocalElection2018 #VoterID #Bromley https://t.co/1bDlQSK3sk
Reeves said that at the polling station voters have to queue to hand over their ID, and then a second clerk will tick them off a list after they have given their name and address, and that at some polling stations this is leading to long queues.
"It takes you a bit longer to vote," she told BuzzFeed News. "I've been told by the leader of the Labour Group that people are leaving the polling station [without voting] because the queue is so long.
"People are also being turned away, enough that we're concerned about, observable numbers of people are being turned away."
Just been to vote. Was informed that two people had already turned up without ID this morning so had been unable to vote. Very worrying and backs up all the evidence that the voter ID pilot in Bromley is plain wrong.
Reeves said that those most likely to be disenfranchised include people from ethnic minority backgrounds, and those with mental health problems.
"Bromley as a whole doesn't have a huge ethnic minority population, but two wards in my constituency have very high numbers of ethnic minorities," she said.
"People come to my surgery from these wards that don't have documentation; someone came over as part of the Windrush Generation who hasn't got a passport. I'm hugely worried people aren't going to go and vote."
"Bromley's own equality impact assessment found there'd be an adverse impact on older people and trans people", she added, "and it will affect people with learning disabilities and mental health problems, not being able to understand the new procedures."
Urging the government to scrap the proposed voter ID system, she said: "You're putting up unnecessary barriers for people to be able to exercise their democratic right."
The prime minister's spokesperson said the government was "working with local authorities to take an evidence-based approach".
He said voters in pilot areas had been asked to bring a form of ID and the "overwhelming majority of people are casting their vote without a problem".
In Bromley, he said, voters had been sent six pieces of literature reminding them what they needed to take to the polling station.
"We will consider the pilot and decide the best way to go forward," he added.