Home Affairs offices will be open on election day to assist voters who need to collect identity documents, the department said on Friday.

The offices would be open between 7am and 9pm on 22 April for people to collect documents for voting purposes, said departmental spokesperson Siobhan McCarthy.

"During the past month Home Affairs has produced over 200 000 IDs."

McCarthy said people could track the status of their ID applications by calling the department's contact centre on 0800-60-1190 or sending an sms with the letters "ID" followed by their ID number to 32551. Otherwise they could visit the department's website at www.dha.gov.za.

Anyone who had lost their ID could apply for a new one and a temporary identity certificate (TIC) at a home affairs office during office hours.

McCarthy said an online verification system allowed applications for the re-issue of IDs to take place on the spot.

"The TIC may be used by registered voters as a form of identification at the polls," she said.