As the Guardian notes this morning:
Thousands of voters in the May local elections are at risk of being disenfranchised because of “cynical” rule changes that make photo ID compulsory, Labour's metro mayors argue.
Mayors including Sadiq Khan in London, Tracy Brabin in West Yorkshire and Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester have come together to raise awareness of changes they say are a “brazen assault on our democracy”.
The new system, they argue, is a Tory attempt to make it easier for the Conservative party to win and are “inspired by the voter suppression tactics of the US Republican party”.
It is apparently impossible for us to consider PR in the UK.
We cannot reform the House of Lords.
Scotland is denied a referendum on its future as, no doubt, one will also be denied on Northern Ireland in due course.
We may not talk about the EU, ever again.
But rigging the voting system to make it harder for everyone, and most especially the young, to take part in elections? That's just fine. Bring it on, they say.
And you can be sure Labour will do nothing about it.
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The Electoral Commission report that:
“In the past 5 years, there is no evidence of large-scale electoral fraud.
Of the 1,462 cases of alleged electoral fraud reported to police between 2019 and 2023, 10 led to convictions and the police issued 4 cautions.” – – https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/research-reports-and-data/electoral-fraud-data
There is next to no fraud. Requiring voter ID is the fraud/
Why isnt the Electoral Commission running a massive advertising campaign to get people to register and or get ID?
This should be a major scandal of Putin / Orban dimensions – but hardly gets a peep from ‘the public service broadcaster’ – which keeps reminding us of the gerrymandering going on in other autocratic countries.
Why isnt it a human rights case – when they allow older people ID’s but not student and other young people’s ID?
The thing about the voter ID is the evidence needed to be provided to obtain it. It’s not deliberated skewed towards the elderly.
It is – look at the demands made
The thing is that people look at the long list of allowable ID for the elderly without understanding that they are all the same thing. They are all subsidised travel cards for all the different regions.
And none are allowed due young people – why?
There is another factor which distorts our democracy.
Millions of people are missing from the electoral rolls.
Time for automatic registration.
https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/electoral-commission-estimate-8-million-missing-from-electoral-roll/
Agreed
How do you automatically register somebody when you don’t know they are there?
Driving licences, to start
Then council tax data
And then HMRC and DWP tax data
All could be used to create automatic registration data
They have voter ID requirements in every country in the EU.
They have had voter ID requirements in Northern Ireland since 2002.
Are those countries rigging the voting system?
No, because they have universal ID cards
We do not
And the ID being demanded is being rigged against lower income and younger groups in society
Biut I suspect you alreayd knew that
It may seem odd to say this, being a passionate pro EU remainer, but one really good thing came from Brexshit for us living in Spain. We now have proper plastic photo ID cards. An invaluable little piece of joy used regularly for all sorts of bureaucratic happenings. Why UK does not have these is beyond the workings of my simple brain.
“the ID being demanded is being rigged against lower income and younger groups in society”
An old person’s bus pass, a disabled person’s bus pass, a voter authority certificate (these are all completely free) or a PASS card (proof of age, specifically aimed at younger people) are all accepted.
So things available completely free and something aimed specifically at younger groups are included.
But I suspect you already knew that and were just hoping people reading this blog weren’t.
But a young person’s rail card is not acceptable.
Nor are almost any other forms of identity that they are likely to have.
The mayors I note known that this bias is very real
So do the Elctoral Reform Society
So why are you so abusive?
You are now banned for being so.
Mr Cushen, the UK specialises in using random, and hoc systems with no universal application, to operate universal services. Why? Because it is easier to manipulate, by favouring the preferred address hoc systems for a favoured group;and claim you are operating a universal system. Everyone is convenientlY confused because the system is so unsystematic and random those you wish to exclude do not understand, and are excluded . This is how the UK does business with it’s own people: scam them.
As hoc, not address hoc. Autocorrect out of control.
What we are ending up with is the worst of all worlds, a requirement to prove who we are but not a national id card to do so
Agreed
Working with Year 13 students, most who are now eligible to vote, a few weeks ago I asked who had registered . One, ONE, out of twenty five. It’s now three, but this is a real issue.
Agreed
Andy Beckett addressed this very issue – and the reason behind it a few weeks ago here:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/24/tories-power-grabs-government-britain-voters
Andy Beckett’s Guardian writings are always a must read.
Agreed
Its may be worse than that – some conspiracy theories are not just theory it seems.
The Turton Street junk think tanks seem to be just a tiny part of a world wide network of hundreds of institutions, politicians, academics – aimed at political take over of all independent and semi independent institutions in democracies – Koch funding, Atlas network – books like ‘Democracy in chains ‘ havent read yet – but looks really frightening.
If you are a student at a UK university, and eligible to vote, your student ID card (which is a photo ID) is invalid – why? Might it have something to do with the fact that most of them will not vote Tory?
I couldn’t possibly comment but, fortunately, most UK students have either a passport or a driving licence, both of which cut the mustard.
Most, but not all by any means. The prejudice is clear.
Even Jacob Rees-Mogg admitted that the Tories were gerrymandering:-
https://www.thenational.scot/news/23524116.rees-mogg-slammed-admitting-tory-gerrymandering-voter-id/
The issue of electoral fraud and the claim that it is small, is challengable.
Over years of attending election counts my election agent has tried to report to the police evidence of jiggery pockery going on. Sadly the police are so overstretched they don’t have the capacity to deal with it.
eg taxis driving round the city collecting piles of postal votes from multi resident homes and delivering them to the electoral office.