New proposals for voter identification.

Can’t see a problem with having to show photo ID as most people have it anyway so why not produce it when you vote?

A good reason is that it prevents identity fraud.

Lin52

rosie1959

Lin52

rosie1959

Alegrias1

A benefit for those without a passport or a driving license they will now have some photographic ID

Why do they need one? My mum's lasted 83 years without one, why start now?

Times are changing try opening a bank account or taking out a mortgage

Think she must have had an ID card during the war.

Did very young children have ID cards

Yes, every man, woman and child had to carry one.
www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/war/idcards.html

But we are not in a state of war and there really is no problem with voter impersonation or fraud. This is a solution in search of a problem. There isn't one.

there really is no problem with voter impersonation or fraud

Can you back this up with actual information please.

GillT57

I understand that many on GN don't have a problem with it, but can any of you give a good reason for it?

Having some form of photo ID is actually useful in modern society. This has become clear to me recently when my mother’s 26 descendants had to supply some form of photo ID (plus another kind) before the wishes on her will could be implemented.

Gwyneth

A good reason is that it prevents identity fraud.

But, the figures do not back this up. In fact, figures released by Full Fact show Across all ten trial areas in 2019, 1,968 people were turned away for not having the correct ID. Of those people, 740 did not return to vote so more people were turned away, than were convicted.

2 people were convicted.

Surely the money and administration that is being dumped on the shoulders of local authorities could be spent in better ways? Filling in pot holes perhaps ?

Whoops! Only 19 of them (not the great grandchildren).

But still….

You asked for a reason.

At the moment I am sent a white card in the post based on an online voter registration which I made several months before. I take the card along to the polling station where someone looks up the address on the card on a list and gives me a ballot form. How do they know it’s me? How do they know it’s my card? How do they know it doesn’t belong to the previous occupant or someone else in a shared household? Or a card I picked up in the street or from someone’s house I’d been visiting. They don’t.

Each year when the registration form arrives, I am asked who, age 18 or over, is living at the address. What if I entered some random names for fictitious people? Would the borough council check to see if these were real or would I receive a stack of voter cards for them next election. Yes, I could be prosecuted for making a false declaration but with a population of 67 million is anyone checking. I doubt it.

I regularly receive post for a woman in the next road with the same house number and she receives post for me. We have friendly arrangement where we walk these errant items round to one another but what if were weren’t inclined to do that? What’s to stop me using her card or passing that card to someone else? So long as I or someone else uses it early at the polling station before she has gone there herself with the duplicate she may have obtained, who is going to know?

People are saying there is no problem with voter fraud. How does anyone know? How would anyone know, other than me, if I was behaving fraudulently? There may be no evidence of large-scale electoral fraud but there may be plenty of cases of individuals committing small-scale fraud.

I agree Baggs that in many cases, photo id can be very useful, but surely we do not believe this is the purpose of voter id?

2 people were convicted.

This could be just a poo a conviction rate, like with rape.

*poor

But we have never had any thought about voter fraud until this latest Queen's speech when the idea was planted in people's heads? Yes, I could pinch my neighbour's voting card when I visit and then go and vote as her, put on a wig and glasses and then vote as myself......but, why would I? The list is ticked as you enter the polling station so assuming my neighbour also voted, it would throw up an anomoly and be a security issue surely? Most polling stations are small affairs with a handful of people, to make multiple visits as different people would take a master of disguise and all day. Why would you?

^ But we have never had any thought about voter fraud until this latest Queen's speech when the idea was planted in people's heads?^

Earlier in this thread it was said that voter ID has been talked about since 2014.

The link for that fact:
commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9187/

Tony Blair wanted to introduce photo ID just for general purposes. He goes back a bit.

Baggs

Tony Blair wanted to introduce photo ID just for general purposes. He goes back a bit.

My post, today, 16:47.

It would be interesting to know if it’s the same people objecting now as it was to Tony Blair‘s proposal. And if not, hmmm ?

I've always objected. It's a bad thing..

Remember No2ID? www.no2id.net/

GillT57
but we have never had any thought about voter fraud etc
You might not have had any thought about it, but I have.
I knew a social worker working in this borough when this was happening.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-47535867

What a fuss about nothing. I used to be in charge of our polling station. It took seconds to look up the address and check the id.Everyone had photo proof or the free card. Without id you have no idea how many people are not who they claim to be. When my daughter went to vote last time her vote had already been taken.

MerylStreep

GillT57
but we have never had any thought about voter fraud etc
You might not have had any thought about it, but I have.
I knew a social worker working in this borough when this was happening.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-47535867

And they caught him

So somebody could come along and say, oh but what about all the ones they didn't catch? We don't know how much of this goes on!

So there might be crime, that we don't know about, that nobody's complained about, but might be happening anyway, although there's no evidence of it, so we all need to give up some civil liberties just in case.

Don't think so.

I was not suggesting voting multiple times just saying how easy it would be to use a card that belongs to someone else - something just confirmed by kircubbin2000.

In the 2019 General Election some large urban seats were won by less than a 2% majority amounting to a few hundred votes.

kircubbin2000

What a fuss about nothing. I used to be in charge of our polling station. It took seconds to look up the address and check the id.Everyone had photo proof or the free card. Without id you have no idea how many people are not who they claim to be. When my daughter went to vote last time her vote had already been taken.

You're not in the UK then kircubbin2000? Or was your polling station in one of the trials?

I thought the problem was with voters such as students registering to vote twice - once in their home town and once in their university town thus getting 2 votes. Thinking about it how would voter ID cards rectify this situation?

Still need photo ID for certain financial situations.

Baggs

It would be interesting to know if it’s the same people objecting now as it was to Tony Blair‘s proposal. And if not, hmmm ?

Yes. And for the same reasons