Voting question regarding poorer people

[Dogeatsdog24]

So my understanding is the gap between rich and poor is getting bigger it seems to me rishi has picked on the most vulnerable people ie poor/low income /disabled/ill /elderly etc .

So my question is now you have to have photo ID to vote . Is this a stunt to stop people voting. Which are more likely to be the vulnerable people I mentioned above? As they may be less likely to have a passport /driving licence.

I understand you can apply for photo ID on the government site. But the only reason I know this is because mumsnet told me otherwise I would have had no idea. There will be millions of others that do not know as well. And all non votes automatically go to him.

So is it a ploy to get more votes/stop people voting ... am I talking shit?

I'm going to get piled on here because I don't have the right words to eloquently say what I'm about to...

This demographic, whether they have been told, shown, or have been notified, tend to be those that do not have willingness to expend the necessary energy and effort to get their ID or postal vote sorted. If you know anyone who may fall into these categories, please share your knowledge or help them get the necessary documents to vote or to be able to do so by post.

yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/26925-how-britain-voted-2019-general-election

Interesting breakdown of demographics from the 2019 GE.

Education as always seems to be the biggest dividing factor.

The last general election had a 67.3% and peaked in 1950 with a turn out of 83.9%

www.statista.com/statistics/1050929/voter-turnout-in-the-uk/

We need as people who are eligible to vote, to actually vote if the want to affect actual change rather bitch about it.

I'm not sure it was done with that express intention but certainly without being too bothered if that was the effect.

Similar story in the USA.

And people who think it doesn't disproportionately impact poorer people are probably short-sighted, disingenuous or unsympathetic.

Voter ID is a shit and unnecessary policy, that serves only to nudge people towards postal voting (which has far higher rates of fraud and household coercion)

It's completely emblematic of how incompetent recent governments have been

And people who think it doesn't disproportionately impact poorer people are probably short-sighted, disingenuous or unsympathetic.

Why can't poorer people log onto the Gov website and take less than 5 minutes to apply for a postal vote?

Even if they don't have the means, their local library will. If they don't have a local library they'll know at least one person with the internet on their phone.

There's nothing disproportionate about it.

Yes you are talking a load of shite .

Lol you have to have reliable internet to do this. Two weeks ago we had the fucking engineer out and now its gone wrong again. Dropouts every few mins Had one while typing this.
We need to stop telling everyone to do everything online Until
a. the internet is reliable enough, and b. BT join the same 24/7 society that we keep being told it is and pay their engineers to work weekends and bank holidays

A bus pass is photo I'd and anyone over 67 can get a free one and I think over 60 in London for some reason.

Why would poorer people not have ID though?

Because they are less likely to have a passport or driving license. Isn't that obvious?

And yes. There's a free voter ID available. But the system to get it didn't work. My local labour party candidate said I wasn't the only person he'd spoken to who had the same issue.

Pull the other one.

It's incredibly patronising to assume "poor" people don't have the agency to apply for ID.

I dont have a passport or driving licence I managed to change doctors surgery without either

Yea, I've managed to get jobs/DBS checks and a bank account without photo ID. Despite being told on here that's impossible.

Since students have been mentioned.... I'd had a conversation with one of my uni student children and they told me you could be registered to vote in both locations, home address and term-time address. I've just double checked and this is definitely correct; although you are strictly not permitted to vote twice in most elections (council elections an exception for example), you have to choose which place to vote.

Pull the other one what's that meant to mean ?

A blue badge counts as photo ID. Let's not pretend this is some sort of attempt to stop disabled people voting.

@Dogeatsdog24

That you really did not know how to get photo ID.

This.

It doesn't affect poorer and disabled, it affects those will compromised intellectual abilities. And shoot me now - I'm not convinced it's in the best interest of society to have this demographics voting.

No I did not . I thought if you did not have passport or driving licence. You could not vote. Because when asked for photo ID for other things it always says passport /driving licence. So I thought it was the same in this case to.

Of course it is.

ID was already needed to vote in at least one country of the UK (NI) as well as many (most?) countries internationally.

Given who brought it in, I do think it was either a distraction or for cynical reasons, but it's such a normal policy I can't get worked up about it.

Postal votes do not require photo ID.

@Dogeatsdog24 you say you have learning difficulties but obviously were able to understand the voting registration form and could read the address of your polling station - or somebody helped you with it.
So why could you not read (or have someone read it to you) the instructions on the polling card that said you need photo ID and what to do if you didn't have any.
The information was on the polling card. I don't know how it could have been given to people in an easier way?

You must've missed this bit of my post...

Even if they don't have the means, their local library will. If they don't have a local library they'll know at least one person with the internet on their phone.

Plus you can apply for a postal vote by post too.

I didn't have a polling card I only recently registered to vote. After learning about the photo ID thing some time ago. I thought that was that nothing I can do. So i didn't do anything as i did not know i could. It was only when I asked about it on here that someone told me how I can do it.

Of course I can read and write . But that does not mean I fully understand things or that I fully take it in. I simply thought there was nothing I could do.

It might be simple to you but it was not to me. I feel like I have to keep overly explaining myself. . Maybe I'm just dumb or stupid I don't know.

@Dogeatsdog24 at least you know enough to ask the question.