Democracy experts, anti-racism campaigners and those representing
elderly voters and LGBT+ communities are warning that mandatory
voter ID risks pulling up the drawbridge to thousands of voters,
as the government confirmed plans to impose the ‘show your
papers’ policy on Friday.
In the government’s new response [1] to the Electoral
Commission’s report on last year’s elections, Cabinet Office
minister confirmed she plans to push ahead with imposing mandatory
voter ID, writing: “We are concentrating on the promises we made in
our manifesto including to ensure electoral integrity by
introducing voter ID and bringing forward changes to strengthen
postal vote processes and to equalise constituencies amongst other
changes."
The report responds in part to a recent contribution from the
Association of Electoral Administrators which warned that voter ID
was unnecessarily ‘introducing more complexity’ to an ‘already
creaking system’. Opponents say the policy will turn election
workers into ‘bouncers at the ballot box’.
There was just one conviction for personation fraud, out of
millions of votes cast in the UK last year, according to the
Electoral Commission [2].
Commenting, Darren Hughes, Chief Executive of the Electoral
Reform Society, said:
“We know that the government’s voter-ID proposals will
disproportionately hit older voters, people of colour, and those on
low-incomes. Experience from the US shows that when there’s no
universal ID scheme, these laws unfairly – and often deliberately –
lock millions out of the ballot box, skewing the system and
deepening political inequalities. We must not import US-style voter
suppression to the UK.
“Voting is a right and one you shouldn’t have to opt into.
Rather than pulling up the drawbridge to large groups of voters,
ministers should deal with bringing in the nine million people who
are missing from the electoral register, and the dangerous
loopholes in our analogue-age election laws.
“Given the huge potential for disenfranchisement, it is
deeply worrying that ministers see imposing voter ID as a priority
– rather than reforming Westminster’s warped voting system or
unelected House of Lords.
"When it comes to Britain’s democratic crisis, this isn’t
just fiddling while Rome burns – it’s pouring petrol on the flames.
It’s vital that ministers think again before driving another wedge
into our already-unequal politics.”
Dennis Reed, Director of Silver
Voices, which represents people over-60s, told news
site Byline [3]: “We fear this is a
‘Trumpian’ manoeuvre to limit voting by those who are not natural
Government supporters – i.e. the most deprived members of
communities, including senior citizens in poverty.”
Josh Bradlow, policy manager at
Stonewall, added: “LGBT people –
particularly those who are working-class, older, disabled, and
people of colour – are more likely than the general population to
live in poverty or experience homelessness, which can create
significant obstacles to obtaining photo ID. Many trans and
non-binary people also may not have ID matching their
gender.”
Anti-racism group Hope Not Hate
described mandatory voter ID as “a cure that is worse than
the sickness.”
A spokesperson for Liberty
added: “The Government has given us plenty of reasons to be
wary of its digital projects. Recent months have seen backtracks
over the planned contract tracing app and exams algorithm, and only
last year the Home Office had to apologise to EU nationals and
Windrush citizens in the space of a week for data
breaches.”
Last year’s voter ID pilots in just a handful of council
areas saw a over 700 people turned away and not return [4] –
effectively meaning they were disenfranchised.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
The government was recently accused of misleading Parliament:
A series of Freedom of Information requests has revealed that
Government departments do not know who will be hardest hit by
mandatory voter ID plans…despite ministers repeatedly claiming that
“the evidence shows there is no impact on any particular
demographic group.” https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/has-the-government-misled-parliament-over-voter-id/
BME groups have accused the government of importing US-style
voter suppression: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/bame-anti-racist-groups-id-polling-stations-black-ethnic-minority-a9579866.html
[1] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/921942/The_UK_Government_s_response_to_the_Electoral_Commission_s_reports_on_the_European_Parliamentary__and_local__elections_in_May_2019_and_General_Election_2019.pdf
[2] https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/the-governments-case-for-mandatory-voter-id-has-taken-another-big-hit/
[3] https://bylinetimes.com/2020/10/01/trumpian-conservative-party-plans-for-uk-voter-identification/
[4] https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/latest-news-and-research/media-centre/press-releases/official-figures-show-740-people-denied-the-vote-in-mandatory-id-trials/