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?

In fact in the US, voter ID and registration requirements seem to be well-rehearsed ways of suppressing votes of specific groups.

"New Hampshire House Speaker William O’Brien, a Republican, told a tea party group that allowing people to register and vote on Election Day led to 'the kids coming out of the schools and basically doing what I did when I was a kid, which is voting as a liberal. That’s what kids do — they don’t have life experience, and they just vote their feelings.'

"New Hampshire’s voter ID bill failed to pass, but illegal signs nevertheless appeared on the door of a polling station in O’Brien’s own district, demanding that voters show ID before they could vote."
thinkprogress.org/new-hampshire-gop-speaker-discourages-students-from-voting-because-theyll-vote-liberal-8d7da2fc394f

I think it is pretty ridiculous to allow voting without photo id and is a real weakness in the system.

Wow. Some people are just fucking clueless about how shit it is at the bottom. Months of walking around with freezing soaking wet feet because I can't afford to replace my footwear with holes in the soles. £34 is out of my range for something non essential when I can't afford new shoes.

allegretto, in which case surely you would support an argument for it being free.

ID's + Snooper Act = Sinister?

I don't think there's any suggestion that voting without ID was a major factor in Tower Hamlets vote rigging. It was down to a combination of intimidation, and postal voting fraud and coercion. I'm not necessarily against (free) ID cards - lots of countries have them without becoming fascist dictatorships - but if you want to reduce voting fraud then you need to tighten up postal voting first, second and third.

ID's + Snooper Act = Sinister?

Theresa May and the Tories have announced a very sinister sounding crackdown on the Internet. They want to give themselves the power to decide what counts as "objective" news, and what people should be allowed to see and share on social media.

and has zero bearing on election outcomes

Really? Do you not remember Tower Hamlets?

I don't necessarily think this is the right way of fling it but I do think it needs looking at as does postal voting.

*doing

There perhaps does need to be something more to prevent fraud in our voting system, I'd personally start with limiting postal votes - postal votes are so open to abuse from the small such as one spouse filling in a vote from another to the larger ones where self appointed community leaders collect in the votes to fill for their community members.

So it WILL disenfranchise poorer people who can't afford a passport
Anyone who claims they cannot vote because they cannot afford a passport - I will go round to their house. But if I find a bl**dy gigantic telly (£13.99 per week from Bright House), any big dogs, any fags, or alcohol, then sorry, voting just was not a priority.

I believe part of it easy that ballots were double cast or cast from false addresses.

*was that stupid phone

Christ I wouldn't know how much a tv from brighthouse was but the fact that folk have to use those rip off merchants says a lot about this Country and low wages

Well my example was a wide-screen telly given to her by a friend who was upgrading but had bugger all else. No mobile phones no computer. No washing machine. Never smoked and rarely drinks. Maybe a glass of wine once every 6 months.
Trying having any of that on 72 quid a week. Iona
So to buy a sodding passport she doesn't need would mean not eating or paying bills.
Dome people have no bloody empathy.

Or maybe she should not have a TV and instead of buying a TV license she can buy an unnecessary passport instead just so she can vote.

Iona that's unfair. Passports are expensive and a right faff to get hold of. Filling out the form and getting it witnessed is a huge challenge for many poor or vulnerable people. If they don't expect to be going on holiday in a hurry it's easy to see why it's not a priority for them.

If a passport costs £60 or whatever it is now. plus photos, the travel involved in sorting it all out, the stress of finding someone who knows you well enough to witness it (not easy for people who don't count bank managers and head teachers and doctors among their mates) and that's the only way you can vote, I can well see why plenty wouldn't bother.

You are absolutely right that a good proportion of them are completely disengaged and still wouldn't bother even if you paid for the passport and put it right in their hands for them, but to claim that all poor people are just too lazy and feckless to make it a priority is grossly unfair.

I reiterate what I said earlier, I think it's high time we had better systems in place for IDing people and preventing electoral fraud and I'd support an ID card for all. But if that isn't to be rolled out then the governemnt should come up with a voluntary scheme that is free for people who lack the usual forms of ID but would like to have something that entitles them to vote or just prove who they are. It could be done (photos etc) at libraries, job Centre's, GP surgeries etc as a sort of mobile service.

Quite honestly,, I think the uptake would be pretty poor in certain sections of the community as many people would distrust the system and see it as being snooped on or singled out, but that's up to them. The option would be there, if they wanted to vote they'd know what they needed to do.

£72.50 plus cost off photos so a whole weeks money for someone on JSA. And you wonder why it wouldn't be a priority.

The fact that anyone can lose their job and would be classed as unemployed when they claim their measly £72 seems to have been overlooked.
When you're just getting 72quid even brighthouse is a bit much Iona

why do people piss themsleves over id cards or being required to prove who you are.

in the age of identity theft etc it's a good thing.

Anyone could go and vote here with a poll card. you should prove your id.

I don't have a passport or driving licence. It's not 'disenfranchising the poor', plenty of poor people pass their test before they get to the point that they couldn't afford it, and have foreign holidays as they don't have to cost a fortune.

Lack of driving licence/passport does not automatically equal economically disadvantaged