The truth of the matter is that voter ID has always been a solution in search of a problem and has created problems that weren’t there before.
The Electoral Reform Society (ERS) is calling on the government to do more on Voter ID.
Voter ID was first introduced under Boris Johnson’s government in 2023. It requires everyone to show an accepted form of identification in order to vote.
Since then, voters have been turned around from polling stations more than 40,000 times and not returned.
But the ERS says that this is likely to only be the tip of the iceberg, as it won’t account for those who have stayed at home on polling day as they don’t have any form of the accepted ID.
“In short, voter ID has already prevented tens of thousands of people casting their vote, leaving them excluded from decisions that affect them, and adding to a general sense of disconnect with our democracy,” says the ERS.
The electoral reform campaigners say they are “deeply disappointed” at the government’s decision to keep voter ID rules.
In mid-March, the government’s democracy minister, Rushanara Ali, said she has no plans to scrap voter ID. When asked at a select committee it was ‘on the table,’ she said:
“No, it’s not. What we are focused on is improving the system and making sure that we look at what else we can do in relation to voter ID, and getting those legitimate voters who are excluded included.”
The ERS noted how the reasons for implementing voter ID are dubious, namely, levels of voter impersonation in Britain are very low.
In 2019, which was the last general election before voter ID was enforced, just 33 allegations of someone impersonating someone else in the voting stations were made.
Even former ministers from the government that introduced it have admitted they think it was a bad idea. Talking at the National Conservative Conference in 2023, Jacob Rees-Mogg, cabinet office minister and business secretary at the time, said that voter ID was an act of ‘gerrymandering’ that ‘upset a system that worked perfectly well’.
“Parties that try and gerrymander end up finding their clever scheme comes back to bite them – as dare I say we found by insisting on voter ID for elections.
“We found the people who didn’t have ID were elderly and they by and large voted Conservative, so we made it hard for our own voters and we upset a system that worked perfectly well and was one of the glories of our country actually,” said Rees-Mogg.
The ERS says the truth of the matter is that voter ID has always been a solution in search of a problem and has created problems that weren’t there before.
The organisation warns that aside the immediate damage voter ID has done, it’s a worrying sign of the trajectory our democracy has been on in recent years.
“Instead of becoming a country where it is easier for people to vote, we have seen barriers erected that make it harder for people to take part in our democracy. Participation is the lifeblood of democracy and if fewer people are voting it means our democracy is becoming weaker. Which is why it was concerning to see the last general election’s turnout slump to the second-lowest level in a century.”
The ERS says that if the government must leave the rule in place, it should, at minimum, expand the list of accepted ID, such as allowing non-photographic ID like bank cards or allowing voters to use poll cards as accepted forms of ID
It alludes to how introducing vouching, which is used in some US states and Canada, would also give people another avenue to cast their vote. The vouching system allows for another voter, who has ID, to vouch for someone who doesn’t.
“We can’t continue turning away tens of thousands of people, due to allegations of an offence in the low double figures. By drastically expanding the list of ways you can prove who you are, the government could remove the worst excesses of voter ID,” says the ERS.
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