Voter ID

The general election saw 16,000 voters denied the right to vote and blocked from casting their ballots as they fell foul of the rules. One voter being turned away from a single polling station is one too many.

From the start, we warned that demanding ID was an unnecessary and damaging measure – It has always been a solution in search of a problem.

UK elections are safe and secure

Voting is safe and secure in Britain, and public confidence in the running of elections is the highest since 2012. According to the Electoral Commission’s latest tracker of public opinion, 80 percent of people are confident that elections are well run, 87 percent said voting in general is safe from fraud and abuse, and 90 percent that voting at the polling station is safe.

We need to be combatting the huge challenges that undermine our democracy, not putting up paywalls around polling stations.

An expensive distraction

It’s not just those without ID that will have to pay up. The last government’s own figures suggest the scheme will cost up to £180,000,000 extra a decade. A bill we all have to pick up.

A barrier to democracy – for some

Once of the reason so many people were turned away is that the government’s voter ID scheme is a mess. They promised it would be just like picking up a parcel, then decided not to accept ID cards you can use to pick up a parcel.

Strict voter ID rules disproportionately disadvantage people that are already having a tough time. Unlike in countries with a mandatory national ID cards, in the UK the richer you are, the more likely you will have ID. The last government commissioned research found that those with severely limiting disabilities, the unemployed, people without qualifications, and those who had never voted before were all less likely to hold any form of photo ID.

Many citizens who can’t afford to go on foreign holidays don’t have passports, and those that can’t drive don’t have driving licences.

Government-commissioned research found that 2% of people don’t have any form of photo ID (including expired or unrecognisable) and 4% don’t have recognisable ID (roughly 2.1 million people) – making mandatory voter ID a barrier to many people exercising their right to vote.

Our well run elections

Elections are generally very well run in the UK – there are extremely low levels of electoral fraud and people have high confidence in voting. In 2019, the last general election year, there were only 33 allegations of impersonation at the polling station, out of over 58 million votes cast. Adding a major barrier to democratic engagement off the back of so few proven cases would be a sledgehammer to crack a nut.