How come we don't have to prove our identity to vote?

[user476t58]

I rocked up at my polling station after work without my polling card as I'd left it at home. I was just asked my address & given my voting paper. They weren't interested in seeing any ID. There's so much scope for cheating without any checks..

Why are there only pencils in the polling booths?

People are less likely to nick them

They last longer and don't leak

and its traditional - started off back when pens were mainly fountain pens and deeply inconvenient to provide

They track by apparent anomalies, reported by election officials.

Cases the low hundreds, no evidence of wide scale issue

Data from 2019

The whole system of voting with pencils on bits of paper in booths at local municipal buildings is an an anachronism and alienates people from politics.

Because having photo ID is expensive. It means that the poorest in society won't be able to vote.
I believe that's the whole point.

Voter fraud is such a tiny potential issue given that most people don’t bother to vote anyway. If anything I find it weirder that we don’t have compulsory voting, like Australia.

Still do! They were most put out that my passport was out of date but allowed me to vote anyway

The parties running help people fill out forms to get the electrol card. They want the votes. Its a non issue in N.ireland. parties come round the houses offering to help doesn't mean you have to vote then but they do it if needed. They come around on election day too offering lifts to the polls. I got s knock once to remind me I hadn't voted and did I need a lift

I could very easily go and say I was any one of my neighbours.

When I went yesterday I had to give my address. It was on page 12 of her booklet so there was no way I could easily scan it to check which address/person hadn't already voted

That's quite a claim. Would you care to substantiate it?

It is a national ID card by stealth.

Eg Ireland introduced a state national insurance card with the NI number for people getting social welfare payments, then issued verified photo ID card. Then everyone had to get the card even of not receiving any kind of SWP. With in few years the department was refusing to accept any other forms of ID and refusing to pay out pensions to OAP with no card.

So the UK government will have adult getting state issued ID.

If the Government believed that there was massive electoral fraud the place to start is within the current law and look at who is currently registered.

That's not accurate information.

For general elections you have to be a British, Irish or qualifying Commonwealth citizen.

For local elections you have to be one of the above OR an EU citizen or a citizen of another country living in Scotland or Wales who has permission to enter or stay in the UK, or who does not need permission.

Types of election, referendums, and who can vote: General election - GOV.UK
www.gov.uk/elections-in-the-uk

Off topic post to:

@theRealBlueSmartie if it is not the case that the relative is still denying it was her/him, (if your relative is willing) you both should to go make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office as your relatives records are not correct either.
If the record is flaged as an error the insurance company should not be able to use it to load a premium.

Have the NHS agreed that it was not you or are they still say its your record because it was you? If you can prove that you do not have the condition and so could not have been diagnosed with the condition, they have a record of a medical error, can you see if they are open to noting the medical error rather than being sued as you have now a suffered a financial loss.

The Voter IDs will be free. A Guardian analysis of this concluded that it is the elderly, disabled and homeless that will be most affected. 96% of people in the U.K. already have acceptable ID but only 94% of disabled and 91% of over 85s of the elderly. (This is after they added blue badges as acceptable form of ID).
www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/may/11/more-than-2m-voters-may-lack-photo-id-required-under-new-uk-bill

I postal voted yesterday, but last time I went, it was very easy to see the addresses around mine, as the person scanned their eyes down the page.

Plus, of course, you might know people who are away, or people who have previously told you they aren't voting etc - it doesn't have to be all on spotting an address where the voters haven't voted yet.

My (adult) ds worked in a polling station for the first time last year, and he was staggered that anyone could just walk in and say they were Bob Smith from 24 Acacia Avenue and that they (as clerks) just had to believe them.

It’s kinda an honesty system which is bizarre
No it isn't, it's a decent principle, like the presumption of innocence and is the mark of a civilised society rather than one that assumes the worst of everyone.

In northern ireland we have to provided photographic id to vote and if we do not have it we are not allowed to vote

My (adult) ds worked in a polling station for the first time last year, and he was staggered that anyone could just walk in and say they were Bob Smith from 24 Acacia Avenue and that they (as clerks) just had to believe them.

Yes, that’s what I’m realizing. I know plenty of people’s address and DOB off by heart, family members, close friends, etc. I even look like some of them and could easily pretend to be them at a polling station if I wanted to.

Could....
Would be easy to......

Not the same as have done or even would consider.

Er, I forgot my voting card and there was a tick next to my name as having voted. And they said it will have been an error and let me vote anyway! So why bother ticking names off at all?

That should not have happened. If you were down as having voted but said you hadn't, no way legally should you have been able to vote normally - you would have had a 'tendered paper' and that would have been logged. It would then be subject to any court order investigations.

Regarding student reg - yes, you can be registered at separate addresses but it depends on the type of election as to where you can vote - nationals can only vote at one address. Locals have different rules. As did Euro elections (RIP). Overseas and armed forces electors have different rules too.

It's all ridiculously highly scrutinised and verified and I encourage anyone who doubts this to investigate further: EVERYTHING is traceable and logged, including who voted for what.

@Kite22 wouldn’t your DS have noticed one person asking for multiple ballot papers using different names?

Candidates qualifications and identity aren’t checked, they are trusted to tell the truth.

I'm no fraudster, but I presume you'd not go back within a couple of hours. I presume at least once you could get away with "Yeah, people are always getting us mixed up". I presume if you really wanted to, it wouldn't be too hard to disguise your appearance.
Plus, if I knew my sister, or my friend wasn't voting, and wanted to go and vote in their place, they go to different polling stations from me, so I wouldn't be approaching the same clerk at all.

Probably because the challenge is getting people to vote once OP, not stopping people from voting twice.

Yes, you could walk into the polling station and pretend to be someone else (assuming that you know their name and address). Polling station staff are often local and there's a chance you'd be caught out that way, or that the person would have already voted, or requested a postal vote, but you also stand a reasonably good chance of getting away with it. However, it would be really difficult to do this on a large enough scale to make a difference to the result.

It is much more effective for parties to manipulate the election result by controlling the media, or by introducing measures that would disenfranchise large numbers of the opposition parties' voters.