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..

How on earth can anyone say voter fraud is low? You have no way of checking it, unless everyone who has ever committed voter fraud admits to it.

Ever year when I go to vote, I can see the list of all of my neighbours. Hardly any of them vote. (And no, they are unlikely to have postal votes instead.)

I could very easily get some people from other voting districts to turn up and vote as my neighbours if so inclined. You just need their full name and address. I know those things.

It's alway struck me as one of the ways in which I could cause havoc if I really wanted to... It's lucky my morals wouldn't permit me to do that.

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.

I pointed out that someone could have voted as me and he repeated it was just an error. So I asked if my address got two ticks then. He raised an eyebrow, gave me my ballots and pointed out the booth. So I took that as a no. So not much scrutiny at my local voting centre.

Honestly, I think it was an error. It's always the same people who win. Or maybe that makes it more suspicious. 😉

@Kite22 you aren’t thinking about the scale of fraud you’d need to commit to influence a result though. The difference in votes between my MP and the second place candidate was just over 2000. Our constituency has just shy of 100 polling stations.

there's a chance you'd be caught out that way, or that the person would have already voted,

As I said above, there was a tick against my name that I had voted, and I hadn't. They let me vote anyway. So no checks happening at my local centre.

This ^

Nobody has any idea how high or low voting fraud is, as it would be so very easy, but no-one even attempts to put anything in place that would make it a bit more difficult.

@Kite22 you aren’t thinking about the scale of fraud you’d need to commit to influence a result though. The difference in votes between my MP and the second place candidate was just over 2000. Our constituency has just shy of 100 polling stations.
Yes, but that is in your constituency. In some it is thousands more than that, but in others, it can, literally be a handful of votes. It varies wildly.

I also think some people are taking my ponderings as if I intend to do them . I really don't. However AlltheTeeShirts makes a really good point about being able to bring different people in to use your neighbours votes. She is clearly much more of a master criminal than I am. I am embarrassed to say I never thought of that. There are constituencies where half a dozen votes could swing the vote.

@Kite22 The world better hope I never turn to the dark side! 😂

What I have always found strange is the lack of privacy with the lists that get checked off. I have often stood close enough that I can see which of my neighbours have and have not voted and I think that I should not be able to see this.

Well we know the Tories want it as they think they'll gain as a result. So expect that debate to grow on Mumsnet!

Much more crucially I wish we would move to proportional representation in the UK, and come General Election time, have a system that means every individual person's vote would count. Now THAT would make a difference.

Any evidence of this claim that postal voting has more fraud? I live in a state that only has postal voting. We don’t have any in-person voting at all. But voter fraud is almost non-existent. We have to sign the envelope that contains the vote and the signature is checked against the signature on file. Even the slightest difference such as the loop of a g or y being bigger than they are in the file signature can cause you to be called in to be verified.

There's a link up thread that says out of date ID would be accepted

Think Leicester as well.

Dh and I spoke of this yesterday. Our borough had 4 votes in it so you can't help but wonder if it would get tempting for some to claim other votes..

Huge postal voting problems in my area. Largely amongst one section of the community.

Tell us more

Im with you OP. It’s madness. And the only people actually disenfranchised would be those with no right to vote anyway

This shows a shocking lack of understanding

^^ This.

This shouldn't have happened - is there someone with a very similar name at your address, as the staff might have realised there had been a mix up?

@Kite22 results at general elections are very rarely close. Anything less than 1000 is news-worthy.

There has also been no mention of polling agents, tellers and the marked registers on this thread, which are other means of detecting personation.

If your name has been crossed, they seriously cannot issue you normal ballot papers. Polling station staff are heavily trained. Before the ballots are counted there is a verification process which means the count staff check there are the same number of papers in the ballot box as the polling staff have said there are. This is a rigorous and fully public (published) process.

If you truly believe you have been issued white ballot papers while someone else has voted using your name, then call the police immediately and there will be an investigation ending in a court case that will open up the Numbers List, the Register and the ballot papers and the judge will see who voted for who and when.

This does happen.

Postal votes check signatures and DOB. They are scanned and any discrepancies are checked by a licensed adjudicator and any rejected voters are notified as a legal requirement.

The ignorance and dismissal of the lengths people go to to ensure democracy (and the career and personal consequences if they fail) on this thread is saddening. Not surprising, because it is hard to trust the public sector, but still hurtful.

None of this addresses people using the votes of those who can't be bothered to use them. It only addresses people trying to vote as the same person twice.