To be shocked by plan to disenfranchise the poor.

[Fab39ish]

Just seen a report on my facebook feed which suggests that the Government want to make it compulsory to provide photo ID to vote.
What happens to people who don't drive or have a passport?
Is there a national cheap photo ID card you can buy. But even so if you are poor maybe you won't be able to afford that?

Do you think she hasn't tried? But not many people want to employ a malnourished 63 Year old with mild learning difficulties

Beep Theresa, haven't you got things to do?

OK do yes let's just take her vote.

Macarena "The tories' ultimate goal is the death of the poor"

FFS don't be fucking ridiculous. I'm not a Conservative voter but that sort of hyperbole really does my head in.

You're right; it's more of an unintended consequence rather than a deliberate goal. They want us alive to work for them....

Poll clerks cross names off the electoral register as people arrive to vote and write the number of the card the person is given against their number.

My poll card say I don't need to take it to vote. I have wondered about that.

Last GE I was behind someone in the queue who was turned away because they'd supposedly already voted. I strained to eavesdrop couldn't help overhearing the ensuing conversation - it seems he lived at the same address at his dad, who also had the same name. His dad had already voted and he wasnt actually registered (think he thought it was automatic). But if he'd been there first he'd have had his dad's vote! It did seem a bit lax.

Having said that, there might be ways to pinch one vote, but if you wanted to commit fraud so it actually made a difference, you'd have to do something massive.

Agree plan is dodgy.

Of course it's acceptable ID, it's what I've used for 7 years.

I need to correct my earlier post. Provisional licenses ARE acceptable ID in N Ireland. Although I'm sure that in the past they weren't, as I remember when I first was old enough to vote I had no passport and only a provisional license and it wasn't acceptable then. That's a long time ago though!

Well earn more and get off jsa?

Hahahahahahaha... I can't believe anyone thinks it's a straightforward as that!

Or rather no qualifications.

I'm too disabled to drive. I'm on ESA. I cant afford a passport. I have no savings and live week to week.

People cant have it both ways. you wanted benefit cuts, you got them.

I've always thought it's ridiculous you don't need ID to vote. You don't even need to bring the bit of paper with you. As long as you know someone's name and address, you can steal their vote.

A lot of people say they don't see the point in voting and won't bother. Do a bit of digging, turn up at their polling station and job's a good'un. Bringing in some sort of verification process is long overdue.

The main reason I vote is because if I don't turn up, someone could easily vote in my name. Imagine the shame of a pseudo-you voting UKIP!

soupdragon

Why isn't it?

There's plenty of work advertised just a lot of people think they are too good to do it.

Dog walking, mowing lawns, ironing, cleaning, babysitting. All easy to come by, no qualifications needed.

People who are too disabled too work don't claim jsa do they?

Don't take this the wrong way but if learning difficulties are severe enough mean someone can't work are you still allowed to vote? Surely someone in that situation wouldn't be able to understand what they're voting for.

Re needing your polling card to vote, you don't. I've worked as a poll clerk and all you need is your name and address.

I have concerns about the inevitable national identity database that would follow on from ID cards, but wonder why we can't use National Insurance cards as a form of validation. I'm assuming these are still issued (old gimmer here) and if you are eligible to vote you would have one, but I'll happily stand corrected if not

She can work and indeed did work for the bulk of her adult life. She just does not have traditional qualifications. She certainly knows her own mind. However she is now to frail to hold down the factory work she used too do. Her options are limited.
Plus do you really think everyone who needs ESA can get it. A relative is bipolar and was sent into crisis due to the pressure of full time work. Yet he is no longer entitled to ESA.

The sort of work you are referring to isn't freely available all over the country. People can only pay someone else to mow their lawns and walk their dog and do their ironing if they have plenty of disposable income. There are huge swathes of the country where most people don't have the sort of money that allows them to pay people to do stuff for them. You might have 100 people willing to mow someone's lawn for free but only one person who has both a lawn and enough money to pay someone.

The rest of Europe have ID cards. They manage perfectly well.
We are mad not to have them.

Not mow their lawn for free Mow their lawn to earn money.

My Facebook buy and sell feed is awash with people offering their services as dog walkers/lawn mowers/iron-ers etc. But there seem to be precious few people willing and able to employ them.

BeepBeepMOVE

Before the Thatcher gov, unemployed people were able to do those as and when jobs. They had a green card. their claim kept going, and in weeks they worked, the next month that pay was deducted from their benefits.
But Tories dont want a system like that because you think people will try to scam it. Its impossible for people to keep stopping and starting their HB claim.

We should be able to vote using our polling card.

If the Government want photo ID than they should fund it for those who don't have it.
The newspapers say they are not prepared to do that.
So if this is correct and they want photo ID (accept manifesto not clear) than this is a big issue.

BeepBeep your attitude toward those unable to afford things is disgusting. I cannot do babysitting etc. I need to babysit my 20 year old disabled and dangerous to herself dd. That means 24 hours a day, seven days a week etc. No holidays, no respite care and very little fucking money which this government is insistent on cutting with alarming regularity. Stop being so bloody rude.

Yes set yourself up as a self employed babysitter to pay for a provisional driving licence you don't need. Than be sanctioned and lose your benefits as you worked too many hours. So you come off jsa and lose your housing benefit. Carry on looking for odd jobs but they don't materialize .Than you sign on again but you have to wait for benefits to restart. Your rent isn't paid and you get into rent arrears.
I have never claimed benefits in my life but I know people who have and it is no walk in the park.

So you are saying that someone who can't work enough to earn the money for an ID card, then they don't deserve the right to vote ?

That is disenfranchising the poorest & most vulnerable in society, including some who are disabled or fulltime careers.
They aren't "too good" to work - a common myth. Just no one would employ them

I hope the govt will realise that not everyone can afford to pay - like some pp, they may have no idea that others literally have no spare money at all.

We must demand that any voting ID card is free.
Same rights as in NI.

If the govt really want to tackle voting fraud, then the most effective way is to cut out postal votes completely, unless there is very good reason, e.g. registered disabled, or posted abroad.

Also, it should be recorded on how many occasions polling stations have found that someone can't vote because "they" voted already.
Then we'd have an idea if this is only fussing about 0.001 % of votes cast

Beep I have a learning difficulty. I also have a PhD. I am quite capable of deciding which party I want to vote for. Your post is patronising and disablist.

"Tory wet-dreamland"

For all their faults the Lib dems were at least keeping the tories on a leash.

Beep your post is patronising and downright rude.

New problems that arise when you have voter ID:
thinkprogress.org/students-fight-back-against-voter-id-law-that-allows-gun-licenses-but-bans-student-ids-90939824dc52

That article's about the US, but demonstrates how introducing ID can itself be used to rig the ballot.

So, gun licence acceptable as ID, student card not (tho' staff ID from same college is acceptable). Absentee ballot acceptable for over 60s, not for younger ages.

There's not much to stop an individual turning up at multiple poll stations in the UK, although they might be detected afterwards when the real voter turns up, but a single vote in each constituency is unlikely to have any effect whatsoever. It's the large scale stuff that affects results.

So we might solve one problem while creating a larger one.