Voter ID process discriminates

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I am not going to argue here the reasons for or against the need to produce ID to vote, but I do think the UK legislation is facing a too-tight timetable and also, as it stands, is potentially hugely discriminatory. Acceptable ID include passport, driver’s license, and one of a few other possible IDs, most of which are reserved for 60+. Not going to spell it out, but passports, driver’s licenses and/or 60+ cards don’t really reach everyone.
Student ID cards and transport cards are not acceptable, apparently because they are too easily faked…

Yes, you can argue that the Voter ID card is available, but that’s an extra step that falls unequally onto the shoulders of the young and the poor, populations who are less-inclined anyway to vote. The government refused several amendments from the Lords to make the process more inclusive. Local councils have reported that they just don’t have the resources required to process Voter ID applications in time. How exactly is this promoting democratic participation? I don’t think it is, and I think (and this is where perhaps you can argue whether I am being U or NU) the Tory government is restricting this deliberately. Because passports and driver’s licenses are middle-class markers, and 60+ are more likely to be Tory. Students and public transport users, hmm, not so much.

Most people do have photo ID. Over 92% of the electorate in fact.

YABU, people don't have to vote in this country and many, often the majority, don't bother. Someone who cares enough to vote can easily get hold of ID. I mean a passport costs £75 or whatever and is valid for ten years, most people could realistically save £7.50 a year or 15p per week.

I always struggled with the ID card thing. Why didn't they just make it so that you could submit for a driving licence which provides no entitlement to drive and is free ?

For that idea someone could kindly forward me a mere 5% of the amount of money spent doing then abandoning ID cards.

30 billion wasn't it or something ?

Fine that it's a majority but the poster I replied to said 'who doesn't have one' and I was pointing out just one group as an example of who doesn't.

Most people do have photo ID. Over 92% of the electorate in fact.

I specifically mentioned passports.

I was also replying to a PP who seemed shocked that anyone wouldn't have one. Semantics aside, a majority does not equal everyone and it's unbelievable that someone wouldn't understand this and make comments like 'who doesn't have a passport'

The poster said passport or DL even if provisonal.
You concentrated on just passports which "most" people do have anyway.
It's nothing like living in some bubble to ask that q. Most people have one or the other, many have both

Every young person who intends to buy age restricted purchases these days will require photographic ID/proof of age now that challenge 25 is the norm. As the stats previously quoted show the highest compliance is in the youngest age groups.
Also doing anything financial these days requires more id checks - even proving right to work - something that will be more relevant to younger people.

I'd be pretty suspicious of anyone these days who was unable to prove who they were - They either shouldn't be here or are up to no good (or over 85, exempt obviously) - and will find living as part of modern society very difficult if they cannot document who the claim to be.

As for the hard of reading who are complaining that people might not be able to afford a passport etc - there will be a FREE as in no money required option available to all.

"I'd be pretty suspicious of anyone these days who was unable to prove who they were - They either shouldn't be here or are up to no good"

What do you think my mum is up to then? Except for just living her life.

"most people could realistically save £7.50 a year or 15p per week."

Why the hell should they to exercise their democratic right to vote?

"It is a bit archaic for 2022, that all it takes to vote is turning up with a printed bit of light card to prove who you are. How is it discriminatory to propose improvevents to this very easily abused process?"

I totally agree that it's ridiculous that you can just turn up and claim to be somebody without even having to show your voting card.
I know somebody who vote in somebody else's place (without their knowlege) like this.
However, the answer is official ID for all, not what the govt is proposing.

"there will be a FREE as in no money required option available to all."

Yes, but people will have to apply for it and that is a BARRIER.
Yes, in an ideal world, we'd all be perfect citizens so eager to vote that we'd go to all lengths to be able to do it, but the real world isn't like that. For democracy to work, voting has to be easy and accessible to all.

Frankly if someone is incapable of applying for something then how on earth are they capable of making a rational decision on who should govern us?

In the case of my mother, it would be being in her 80s, going blind, going deaf, not having any money and definitely not able to travel to an ID appointment.

Well, that and the issue that accurate registration and birth/marriage/names weren't such a thing between 1899(ish, he never knew for sure) when her father may have been born, 1919 when her mother arrived in England from a Belgian convent hidden in a Nun's luggage and 1948 when her parents discovered there was no record of her existing - because the records office had been hit by incendiary devices dropped by the Luftwaffe - and therefore had to register her again with the resulting NHS number being wrong for the year of her birth. As a result, the odds of all these gaps, possible name changes (nobody wanted to be a girl smuggled by Nuns and also owning a potentially German/Ashkenazi name in England in the 1920s-30s if they could avoid it) and the inconsistency in numbering, the chances of getting a passport she'd never use due to poverty had to be balanced against the possibility of the Home Office deciding that she couldn't prove her right to be here like they've done to far too many people as part of the Hostile Environment shit.

As it stands dh and I can't currently vote. We are a low income family, thankfully we've never had to resort to food banks but there have been times when we were close.

We had passports which expired and with no plans to travel, funds wouldn't allow it, we never updated them.
We had a fire in our home a few years ago which destroyed our paper driving licences and again, die to funds we've not replaced- if we ever need to produce the document for the police I guess we'll scrape the money together but its not been a priority.

There are many people who are choosing between heating and eating for whom £35 on a driving licence is very much out of reach.

I have written to our MP to ask how we apply for the free council ID and when we can apply for it but have yet to hear back.

I will be extremely angry if my right to vote is prevented due to this.

To the poster who asked how many fraudulent votes- the answer was 6 in the last election.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/matt-hancock-voter-fraud-photo-id-b1845363.html%3famp

Yep, and guess which party traditionally wins the lion's share of postal votes (to a much higher extent than votes as a whole)?

Slippery slope.

I live in a very deprived area, and I can assure you that way less than 91-92% have a passport or drivers license!!

Proven cases of voter fraud are low, but suspected cases are significant. Talk to people who work in polling stations and they will tell of one person turning up with 6 voting cards expecting to be given 6 ballot papers. I have heard of a person handing in a voting card who they were sure had already voted earlier, but there is nothing they can do about it (especially when they voluntarily showed supporting ID for the suspected second vote). They may have observed a "leader" of some sort directing "followers" exactly where to put their crosses. They may have seen cases of people voting with an apparently legitimate polling card who they suspect lives in a neighbouring borough and may also have voted there.

How much do you think this would cost?

Are you planning to roll it out as each citizen reaches 16? What about those of us who are already over that age?

"Why can’t everyone obtain a license?"
Because we don't live in the USA.

You are confusing a theoretical risk with an actual problem - they are not the same.
Issuing everyone with a government provided ID would be massively expensive and prone to error in a nation not renowned for the efficiency of government admin or IT systems.

"Issuing everyone with a government provided ID would be massively expensive and prone to error in a nation not renowned for the efficiency of government admin or IT systems."

They manage it with NI numbers/cards, NHS numbers, etc.
I think we have to accept that in the modern world we need official ID like most countries in the world have.

"To the poster who asked how many fraudulent votes- the answer was 6 in the last election."

No, the answer is that we don't know. We only know when the fraud is uncovered. Most of it isn't.

"Someone who cares enough to vote can easily get hold of ID."

Aaarrgh!!
This attitude is despicable. We should make voting EASIER not HARDER.

It just proves that you find reasonableness in what you are used to. I can't imagine not having to show photo ID to vote. Nor have I ever known anyone to say that lack of photo ID was a reason not to vote.

I am finding it funny though that anything related to politics or elections in NI might be an example to anywhere!

A provisional licence is £62.50 in Northern Ireland. It's a lot of money to spend if you can't afford driving lessons.
I didn't learn to drive until much later.
There is an electoral card available here, something similar should be available in the rest of the UK.