Voter ID

Grannytomany

I don’t think many people (whether driving at the time or not) carry their driving licence with them. Mine rarely sees the light of day because I rarely need to actually use it.

I’m surprised how many of you are saying that there’s been a big publicity campaign about voter id. If there’s been a campaign which was properly targeted and thoroughly visible to all ages and sectors of the population them more people would have known about it. The fact that so many people didn’t know is good evidence that the publicity campaign failed to meet its objective. Not everyone watches TV need or current affairs programmes or reads newspapers.

I carry my driving license with me at all times. It's in my wallet/purse. You never know when you might need it. It's with me even when I'm not in my car. It's just useful to have, to prove who I am.

Yes, Calendargirl, I've never understood why it says you don't need to bring the voting card. I always have. When I turned up at the desk with it on Thursday the clerk said " thank you so much. I wish everybody would bring it".

nobody came to check that I was the person who had the postal vote

In theory, your signature on your postal vote should be checked against the signature given when you applied for your postal vote originally. Whether that is done scrupulously or on a random basis, I don’t know.

Foxygloves - if you read what she says, grannytomany isn't intending to not stop if the police ask her to, nor to refuse to provide her licence if required - she simply doesn't cary her driving licence about with her! Neither do I, neither does my husband - and, though I've not asked, I would be surprised if all my adult children carry theirs - as none seem to use the sort of massive purses/wallets of our youth. I can't see why I should need to either as, if necessary I can produce it "within 7 days".

Often (as I did yesterday) I leave the house with just a credit or debit card and my car keys.
We are not all the same, thank goodness.

If I'm walking somewhere (eg to the postbox, to pick up a prescription, to top up my 10,000 steps), I leave home with my front door key and phone. I walk to the poll booth, so normally wouldn't take my handbag with driving licence and bus pass.

Foxygloves - if you read what she says, grannytomany isn't intending to not stop if the police ask her to, nor to refuse to provide her licence if required - she simply doesn't cary her driving licence about with her
I didn’t suggest for a moment that she is, merely quoting from the Government website which I checked to see what the legal requirement is , finding it is indeed a recommendation.

My point remains- we have all been told about this regulation, why be surprised at its enforcement?
People must have short memories if they have forgotten already carrying their evidence of Covid vaccination or Covid “pass”
So perhaps a timely warning before (presumably) next year’s GE.
And for those who bleat “we didna ken “ (we didn’t know)
“Well ye ken noo “

growstuff

If I'm walking somewhere (eg to the postbox, to pick up a prescription, to top up my 10,000 steps), I leave home with my front door key and phone. I walk to the poll booth, so normally wouldn't take my handbag with driving licence and bus pass.

Do you often pop into a polling station as part of your 10,000 steps?
Or would it be a conscious decision to walk to the polling booth?
If the latter, how hard is it to take your picture ID with you, just as I did on Thursday morning’s dog walk?

Eh? I never had a Covid pass and didn't carry evidence of vaccination anywhere.

Foxygloves

growstuff

If I'm walking somewhere (eg to the postbox, to pick up a prescription, to top up my 10,000 steps), I leave home with my front door key and phone. I walk to the poll booth, so normally wouldn't take my handbag with driving licence and bus pass.

Do you often pop into a polling station as part of your 10,000 steps?
Or would it be a conscious decision to walk to the polling booth?
If the latter, how hard is it to take your picture ID with you, just as I did on Thursday morning’s dog walk?

Of course I don't often pop into a polling station on my daily walk because we don't have an election every day. However, yesterday I did incorporate it into my daily "constitutional". I was responding to the point about taking driving licences everywhere. Mine is in my wallet, so I would take it with me if I know I'm going to need money, but not otherwise.

I knew about voter ID because I read about the objections to it, not because I consciously read any instruction to carry it. The publicity campaign obviously bypassed me, as it probably did with others.

We are not all the same, thank goodness.

Wise words, NotSpaghetti. 👏

We voted, along with our ID cards, but we had a (bad) choice of only 2 to vote for, I think my and MrOops vote cancelled each other out.
I was disappointed that we didn’t have the choice of candidates that other areas had as we didn’t want to vote for either of the ones that we had offered to us.

"An initial report, to be published in the coming weeks, will include the proportion of people turned away from polling stations"

Except, as the BBC report also says, "Anyone who left after being told by the greeters outside some polling stations that they needed ID will not have been counted."

So - there'll actually be no idea how many didn't vote because of not having the required ID.

I expect things will be reviewed before the next (General?) Election.

Perhaps certain other forms of I/D will be added to the list of acceptable items?

Froglady

I have a postal vote and have had one for years: nobody came to check that I was the person who had the postal vote.
I feel the government has used a sledge hammer to crack what is a very small problem of voting fraud. And there's probably more fraud going on with postal votes but that hasn't been tackled.

I seem to remember that years ago, when you had to have a 'good' reason for wanting a postal vote, you also had to get someone to sign to confirm you were the right person voting.
Not foolproof, obviously, but a small check.

for those who bleat “we didna ken “ (we didn’t know)
“Well ye ken noo “

There's been very little mention of it in Scotland because Scotland hasn't been having any council elections.
So it'll need to be well publicised before whatever election we have next, not just assume we've all already been told.

My DB was a Tory candidate and said that quite a lot of very elderly voters did not know about ID so were turned away, and did not want to return with ID. He believes that is one reason why the Tories did so badly.

Elusivebutterfly

My DB was a Tory candidate and said that quite a lot of very elderly voters did not know about ID so were turned away, and did not want to return with ID. He believes that is one reason why the Tories did so badly.

Well, if the tories can convince themselves that that is the true reason for their appalling results perhaps they'll repeal the utterly ridiculous legislation in time for the next GE..

In the meantime I can only find this really amusing. Hoist with their own petard...

MaizieD

Elusivebutterfly

My DB was a Tory candidate and said that quite a lot of very elderly voters did not know about ID so were turned away, and did not want to return with ID. He believes that is one reason why the Tories did so badly.

Well, if the tories can convince themselves that that is the true reason for their appalling results perhaps they'll repeal the utterly ridiculous legislation in time for the next GE..

In the meantime I can only find this really amusing. Hoist with their own petard...

Perhaps the IT / tech savvy young made sure they had the right ID, voted Labour, and some of the less-aware elderly didn't and couldn't therefore vote Tory (assuming that was their intention).

Now that's what I call 'karma'.

dayvidg

Just wondering - would anyone have deliberately not produced the required I.D. for personal/publicity purposes?

Ooh that’s not very likely is it! 🤣🤣🤣

I was thinking before I got my bus pass my only ID would have been my passport. There was a period when I let it get out of date, would it have been accepted I wonder?
All irrelevant anyway I have a postal vote and nobody checks. I could give the form to someone let them decide and as long as I signed no one would know. Perhaps the focus for stopping voting fraud should be elsewhere.

MaizieD

Elusivebutterfly

My DB was a Tory candidate and said that quite a lot of very elderly voters did not know about ID so were turned away, and did not want to return with ID. He believes that is one reason why the Tories did so badly.

Well, if the tories can convince themselves that that is the true reason for their appalling results perhaps they'll repeal the utterly ridiculous legislation in time for the next GE..

In the meantime I can only find this really amusing. Hoist with their own petard...

Couldn't have said it better.

As said before, the question of official ID in the UK is very much worth debating and I can argue on both sides, pros and cons.

But to spring the idea of ID all of a suddent for local elections was so so wrong. Either you do it properly and officially, or not at all. And how ridiculous that no checks for postal votes !?!

So so middle class and, Tory- to say everyone has ID, either driving licence, passport or bus pass. And for young people to believe they had ID in the form of Young person's travel Pass- and to be turned away, and others. Clearly and deliberately to discriminate against poorer members of society.

So if many older Tories got caught up in this, yes, karma indeed, I am afraid.

Glorianny

I was thinking before I got my bus pass my only ID would have been my passport. There was a period when I let it get out of date, would it have been accepted I wonder?
All irrelevant anyway I have a postal vote and nobody checks. I could give the form to someone let them decide and as long as I signed no one would know. Perhaps the focus for stopping voting fraud should be elsewhere.

Apparently your out-of-date passport would have been accepted, if the picture still looked like you.

PS. The pictures on my bus pass, passport and driving licence all look different - and I don't think any of them particularly look like me.

But to spring the idea of ID all of a suddent for local elections was so so wrong

I don't think a year could be considered all of a sudden
🤔

Oh put the violins away @*Fleurpepper*.
There is nothing elitist in bus passes!
Nor was this introduced suddenly, at short notice or without notice.
Clearly and deliberately to discriminate against poorer members of society
Come off it - rammy in an empty room?