To remind you that no photo ID = no right to vote.

[SusiePevensie]

Get ID here: www.gov.uk/apply-for-photo-id-voter-authority-certificate

Maybe the govt looked at the advice the EC was giving and thought they were wrong. After all you disagree with them on having a longer lead in time because everyone would wait til the last minute to apply anyway. It would be pointless.

haha. Good try. You already fucked yourself with that post and 8 hours later didn’t even have a decent response

Some of us have other things to think about during the day. Lol.
I don't see how I "fucked" myself with any post. 🙄
You asked why only older people's travel passes were allowed. I explained why they (and disabled passes which you omitted - how ablist!) are only allowed and the others not. I see you have no response to that. Just decided to be rude. I'm not surprised by that.

Once again this affects the poor and the vulnerable.
The people this affects most are the indolent.

Even though its free to apply you need internet access
You can apply by post - the deadline for my council is 5pm on Tuesday 25 April 2023 (but you do need a printed photo if applying by post).

[You need] the ability to complete the form (literacy, language etc)
That would be exactly the same ability you need to register to vote in the first place (which you can do either online or by post), or to apply for a postal vote.

[You need] a spare tenner for passport style pics
If you apply online, you send a digital photo - most mobile phones are capable of taking a suitable photo - and it is free.

Too many people seem to be just whining about this. Why don't they get off their arses and find a relative, friend or neighbour who hasn't got ID and help them to obtain it. Political parties and councils should get out, find people without ID and help them obtain it by running clinics in community centres, shopping centres, schools and church halls (ie. the places where they have polling stations). On previous threads on this topic there were reports of a few enlightened councils already running photo ID "clinics".

It seems to me its mostly lefties in Great Britain who have an irrational fear of this disadvantaging their favoured party.

I don't think that's true - the vast bulk of Labour electoral fraud that has been proven through the proper channels has been perpetrated through postal votes.

It isn't a way of stopping electoral fraud, anyway. It's a way to establish a controlled channel through which people must pass to even vote.

Almost everything government does is to increase centralised control of every basic thing, make sure everything can be "switched off" for tou and it has been that way for some time. I'm sure it's all perfectly innocent and harmless, though. When did power-hungry authorities ever hurt anyone.

I'm sure it's all perfectly innocent and harmless, though. When did power-hungry authorities ever hurt anyone.

Voters ID is required in most democratic societies. I don't hear howls of pain from them. They seem OK with it.
I remember the days you could visit a lawyer without providing ID to prove you weren't money laundering. Society hasn't crashed yet.
Change happens.

I have no problem with Voter ID if everyone is provided with one.

Exactly! Such people wish to blatantly ignore the example of Northern Ireland here because its inconvenient to their faux outrage argument.

And they just as easily ignore the several European countries where voter ID is required.

At the end of the day, all the opposition I'm hearing is from GB lefties, be they Labour, SNP and what have you.

It's certainly not a huge, insurmountable problem requiring people to have ID.

Far from myself clutching at straws, I'm demonstrating that the Electoral Commission was and REMAINS committed to voter ID.

Their reasoning behind it was sound in 2014 and remains so in 2023. They recognise that society has become more polarised over time and that voter ID can help instill confidence in the Electoral system.

It's NOT all about preventing fraud and never was.

Voter ID is here to stay and is in law. Get used to it.

And no, you didn't directly quote the Electoral Commission. What you actually did was take selective screenshots of an article off openDemocracy website and cropped them to attempt to hide the source.

I did directly quote the Electoral Commission, including providing links. Thats how you do it.

Next.....🥱

Those who require one will have to apply for their free voter ID themselves. If they do not, that's their own choice but should not down the line claim the state is disenfranchising them since its not.

Free voter ID is not automatically sent out to anyone. 🤷‍♂️

They had the right to vote.

The government changed the law

And now they don't.

@DownNative

They still have right to vote.🙄

Like I have right to freely move and reside anywhere within EU. But I need ID for that. Even without ID I still have that right, just can't do it until I sort myself an ID to confirm my right to strangers in immigration etc.

With every single right comes some responsibility.

This is obviously nonsense!

You do understand that the Supreme Court ruled the voter ID pilots were legal, don't you?

The judge "rejected the Appellant’s reliance on the principle of legality on the basis that Parliament has chosen in section 10 to authorise schemes that could have adverse effects on the exercise of the right to vote".

Simply put, voter ID legislation very clearly does NOT deny anyone the right to vote at all! Funny how no such argument is ever made in Northern Ireland or other European states where ID is required.

Once more, those who cannot afford to pay for an acceptable form of ID can apply for their Voter Authority Certificate aka VAC. It's completely up to those people whether they want to apply or not. But it IS a free choice for them to make.

After all, democracy DOES allow people to deliberately disenfranchise themselves, you know.

Correct!

Not everyone does - I don't drive so no driving license, and it is bloody expensive to get a passport - I went years before renewing mine as just couldn't afford it.
It's shit if you've no spare cash, having to have a photo ID is awful as it makes it that much harder for " poor" people ( for want of a better word!) to be able to vote.

Have you not read any information about this? Local councils and volunteers are running session to help people with no Internet, or cameras, or have poor reading skills. There is no need for "poor" or "old" or "vulnerable " people to miss out.

Otherwise its a selfie and a quick form on the Internet.

Absolutely
Maybe about getting those that don't have access to those the ability to vote

Vote impersonation or fraud is miniscule compared to election expenditure and media compliance and expenditure fraud.

Isn’t it interesting how the conservatives bang on about small government and red tape being the root of all evil, and yet this adds extra red tape and increases the government’s involvement in people’s lives.
University and college/ apprentice ID cards should be accepted as the amount of paperwork required is around the same as getting a disabled bus pass and much less than my disabled rail card.
A voter ID card with age prominently displayed should be issued for every 17 year old from now on, so that they are able to vote at 18, use for free age ID. It’s also about time we issued passport credit cards with our passport.
There should have been at least a 5 year ramp up, with opt in voter ID cards offered at renewal of universal credit and any benefit application. It should also be a tick box when filling in the electoral register, or registering marriages, accessing health care, or registering children for free hours of nursery/ entering reception/ secondary education, so that parents from disadvantaged communities are provided ID when already interacting with the government.
Not difficult to think about if you’ve ever been in that position yourself, which very few Tory front benchers or their SPADs ever have.

How is the impersonation fraud checked? With no ids and just someone saying name and sometimes first line of address, how is fraud actually traced?

It isn't checked, @Applesandcarrots . As I've said before, I've turned up and found my name crossed of as having voted. They just said it was a mistake and gave me a ballot form to vote. They were probably right but it's not the securest system. You don't even take your ballot card with your address on. That at least would be a little bit of evidence of who you are. But no. I could find any name and address from the electoral register and go to their ward and vote. There are no checks.
But, in all honesty, there doesn't seem to he a lot of fraud. Any fraud is normally associated with postal voting and it tends to be a cultural problem rather than systemic. And is on quite a small scale with very few convictions. If you postal vote, you will have to do picture ID checks every so many years, but it won't stop anyone handing over, or being forced to hand over, their voting ballot to another person. I don't know how that can be stopped really.

No spare cash?

Then you will apply for a Voter Authority Certificate in order to vote. Those are free and you can apply online too:

www.gov.uk/apply-for-photo-id-voter-authority-certificate

Not a major problem.

I've also had the experience of turning up to find my ballot had already been used. No particular reason in that case to doubt that it was just the staff crossing off the wrong name by accident, but unsettling that they were so unconcerned. They gave me a special voting slip and put it in a separate envelope - I think it was to be used if the vote got close.

Free voter ID sent out to every 17 year old regardless of family income?

Absolutely no need for this! Certainly not how it's done in Northern Ireland and isn't how it'll be done from this year in GB either.

No, it's each person's personal responsibility to ensure they've got one of the accepted forms of ID.

Those who haven't and can't afford to can simply apply for a Voter Authority Certificate.

www.gov.uk/apply-for-photo-id-voter-authority-certificate

In Northern Ireland, political parties and authorities have helped the vulnerable to apply for theirs. Same is happening in GB.

Again, not a major issue.

When we get to do our ID at 15 we still have to fill up forms even though it's mandatory by law to have it and you get fined if you don't.
At 15.

I believe 17 year olds who will be 18 by time of elections can register for the free id? I haven't seen the restriction and they should be on electoral register already

@DownNative , we used to be given a N. I. Card at 16, so why not a voter ID card at 17? In order for this country to be truly democratic, you need to remove barriers for those eligible to vote, not create more of them and it’s strange that the party of “red tape is a bad thing “ is adding more at a time that it’s deeply in trouble with the majority of the electorate.
You’re incorrect about Northern Ireland being the poorest region of the Uk by the way. By measure of annual salary, the North East are the poorest, with Northern Ireland tied with Yorkshire. www.statista.com/statistics/416139/full-time-annual-salary-in-the-uk-by-region/.
Northern Ireland actually has the lowest poverty rates of the 4 nations due to lower housing costs. www.jrf.org.uk/data/uk-poverty-rates-region.