...to think you should show sort of ID to vote?

[HumanBehaviour]

I just voted and was shocked that I was not asked for any type of ID to vote. Wouldn't it be safer to ask voters to show some ID to prevent voting-fraud?

Show SOME sort of ID that is.

To be honest I don't think anyone cares enough about politics to go to the trouble of committing fraud. 4 in 10 don't care enough to vote! Makes me

There have been scandals vis a vis postal voting; no ID required for that, either. OTOH, when I voted around 1.30pm (with my card) there had only been 103 other voters before me. On that kind of turnout, I guess the people in the community centre would recognise anyone trying to vote twice!

I agree - ID should be required. Very open to fraud.

Postal votes require signatures and those are checked, as far as I am aware, against the original request for postal voting.

vote early vote often!

In theory it is possible to actually buy votes as all you need is the name and address of the person voting. As long as all the bought votes are at different polling stations no-one is ever going to find out.

the problem with needing ID is that it would put even more people off voting. We already get very low turn outs around me, especially with local elections, so I would be against anything that lowers those figures even more.

A problem though; what kind of ID would be acceptable? Not everyone has a driving license or a passport, often the bills are all in one person's name rather than than some in each, a bank statement is somewhat intrusive...

Signatures on paperwork returned with a postal vote is checked by software against original application. Presiding Officers and Poll Clerks on on duty for the entire day (15 hours), so in theory if you voted more than once at the same polling station some should spot it. You're asked to identify yourself as the person on electoral list, and if you're lying, you're committing personation. Turn out is always very low at elections. Perhaps we should welcome personation!

People are required to produce ID to vote in Zimbabwe, and Mugabe loves it: he sends out his thugs to beat up people in the weeks running up to elections and steal their votes IDs. Laws about the need for ID in Zimbabwe is not always a good thing (and electoral fraud is only one example among many ways rights are abused through the police saying' where is your ID'). Britain should look to how its abused in other countries before assuming its only a benign means of identifying people.

chocciechip, I'm not a Cameron-lover but I can't see him sending out thugs to beat people up and steal their IDs.

What other examples have you got of ID-abuse? Perhaps from a dictator-less country?

Do you really not need ID to vote in England? I voted today in Northern Ireland and had to show photographic ID. No ID meant no vote.

No, I can't see Cameron doing that either, but surely you know where this is going without further explication? I have no idea who will be in power in 20 - 30 years time and nor does anyone. Nor do we know how desperate they and their party will be to hold their particular political hold over a nation that might have the audacity to vote them out after they've struggled so hard to get there. And I think its complacent to assume that because this is Britain, it could never happen here... European recent history is littered with violent crack-pot dictators too. So the bitter experiences of despot-led countries should be warning signs. Other examples of national ID problems are around getting an ID (do you tick the right boxes to qualify for ID, do your parents, will your children ...? etc etc). I can imagine a BNP-led government having an absolute field day with these sort of questions. And then the admin you need ID for ... e.g. registering to vote in Zim is impossible if you don't have a proper Zim ID card. And just the power it gives bureaucrats -- its not nice arriving at a road block and have a tosser cop exerting power and telling you to report to police station to produce your ID withen x days etc, just because he can.

Mind you, I'm talking about national ID here, which is very different to 'some sort' of ID as you asked, but in that case I think what Scholes34 said covers it.

Ideally, ID would be required, but in many cases, people just don't have ID that would be considered acceptable. And in certain areas, this would probably account for the overwhelming majority of people.

It's simply not practical, I don't think.

I had my passport checked in Northern Ireland today, no ID means no vote, and had my poll card checked and my name and address marked off on the list so I couldn't be issued with papers twice. I find it strange that this doesn't happen all over - you'd think it would be the same process for everyone. Though I think we have had allegations in the past of people voting on behalf of dead relatives etc so maybe that's why we have additional checks. Strange though.

Yep another NI voter here .
Photographic ID or no vote !

You can't do a no picture ID no vote without a form of national photo ID which everyone has to hold. Otherwise you are disenfranchising people who don't hold a driving license/passport.

In UK, the rates of electoral fraud are far, far higher with postal voting (especially when they relaxed the regulations recently, giving the postal vote on demand). If there's a problem with ID fraud at elections, postal voting is the area which most needs fixing (or just return to the previous system).

Clytaemnestra in NI there's a lot of documents that can be produced as ID, or you can apply in advance for an Electoral ID Card (free). Plus they don't need to be current documents, so you can use an out of date passport for example.

I don't see why it says on the polling card which has your name and address on it that you don't need to bring it with you to vote. Weird.

The rules are different in NI because historically there were quite high levels of electoral fraud - I think that's where the 'vote early, vote often' line originated. I guess its just not been found to be enough of an issue in the rest of the UK to require checking.

It does seem a little strange you don't have to bring your card, but that may in itself protect against easy fraud or someone disenfranchising another person by destroying it.

I did find myself thinking today its nice to be in a country where democracy is safe in the hands of three nice ladies in a village school. But rather shameful that DH and I were the only people in at the time.