What’s the problem with voter ID?

Since 2023, we’ve had to present a valid form of photo ID to vote in UK-wide elections, and municipal elections in England.

With the introduction of the scheme, the UK has taken a wrong turn when it comes to democratic progress. Here are the key reasons why it’s a scheme that desperately needs to be scrapped – or at minimum, massively re-assessed.

There was never a justification for introducing Voter ID

There’s one thing that needs to be made clear about Voter ID: it’s always been unnecessary. 

With 16,000 voters blocked from casting their ballots in the 2024 General Election because they did not bring an acceptable form of ID to the polling station, you’d really hope that there was a strong reason for introducing these regulations to begin with.  

But that’s far from the case. There’s never been an evidence-based justification for the introduction of Voter ID in the UK. It’s always been a solution looking for a problem. 

The then-Conservative government said, in 2023, that Voter ID was needed for “stamping out the potential for voter fraud”. But thankfully, voter fraud hasn’t been an issue in UK elections.

To put it into perspective: in elections held in 2019, 58 million votes were cast. There were only 33 cases of alleged impersonation at the polling station. That’s 0.000057% of all votes. And out of this already miniscule fraction, there was only one conviction.

Yet due to Voter ID, we’ve seen 40,000 people turned away from polling stations since the scheme was first introduced. The government stopped tens of thousands of us from voting, all in the name of stopping a handful of people from losing their votes to fraud.  

And it’s not as if there was an issue with public confidence in elections, either. Before the heavy-handed Voter ID scheme was introduced, 80% of us were confident that our elections are well run, and 87% of us said voting in general is safe from fraud and abuse.

So perhaps there was another rationale? One former minister involved in bringing in the rules made it quite clear what he thought the point of the policy was. And it wasn’t fighting fraud.

Voter ID creates a barrier for some people, but doesn’t affect others 

In the UK, the more wealthy you are, the more likely you are to have ID. Voter ID rules have been found to disproportionately disadvantage those of us who might already be having a tough time.

That means that mandatory Voter ID has built barriers to voting for those of us who might not have a passport because we can’t afford a foreign holiday; or who can’t drive, so don’t have a driving license. And research commissioned by the last government also 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. In fact, research published in 2021 found that 2% of us don’t have any form of photo ID whatsoever.  

Voter ID means that for some portions of the public, there’s now a barrier blocking their route to participation. People who have the democratic right to vote are being unfairly left behind by these regulations – just because they’re less likely to have ID. 

Citizens are being turned away 

In a modern democracy, we should be taking steps to improve participation, not making it more difficult to vote, because participation is the fuel that democracies run on. In the 2024 General Election, we saw the second lowest turnout on record. This lack of participation is a real problem that the Government should be working on. 

So the fact that Voter ID rules have blocked thousands of us from participating, with 16,000 people turned away at polling stations in the 2024 General Election, shows that Voter ID has been a huge step in the wrong direction. Those thousands of citizens were willing and ready to cast their vote: their participation should have been encouraged and nurtured, not denied on a technicality.

From police officers to nurses, we’ve heard from a number of citizens who’ve contributed to our society their whole lives, only to be denied the right to have their say at the polling station because they didn’t have the right ID. 

The Government should be standing up for our right to have our voices heard instead of making it harder to take part in democracy. 

It’s time to re-assess the voter ID scheme 

In a democracy, voting is a fundamental right. And at a time when turnout is faltering, it should be encouraged, not restricted.

At minimum, the government must expand the types of ID people can use at polling stations. But in reality, as this is a scheme which has caused far more harm than good, the best course of action is for it to be scrapped completely.