Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Voting ID is a nonsense

217 replies

Cranmer · 04/05/2023 21:01

They asked to see my ID at the polling station door, but I went to the desk and could have said I was anyone. Should they not check it against your name and address, not just randomly look at the picture at the door?

All this does is put people off voting as they can't be bothered to get their passport out the drawer. Grrrrr

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
cakeorwine · 04/05/2023 22:41

I don't think I have heard a Government Minister give a reasonable answer as to a:

Why only paper IDs are acceptable?
Why some of the other photo IDs such as travelcards are not acceptable?

All they say is you need voter ID.

cakeorwine · 04/05/2023 22:44

NorthStarRising · 04/05/2023 21:55

The point was never to make voting more secure. It was to remove votes from poor people who are the most likely to have no ID and most likely to vote labour.

My husband has no form of photo ID, so he sorted out a voter identity certificate which is free. Or are you saying other poor people are too lazy or dim to bother?

It depends on how many people are aware and how many people make the effort to sort it out.

And can get it sorted in time.

cakeorwine · 04/05/2023 22:45

lljkk · 04/05/2023 22:31

Young people have photo ID to buy booze or go clubbing.
Old people have bus passes.
Most people in between have something suitable.

Bad form if a young person can't use their railcard ID, though.

Why don't any of you absentee vote? It's so much easier to vote from home and than this voter ID malarky.

Because there's something special about voting in person and putting your vote in a ballot box.

NoNamesLeft371 · 04/05/2023 22:47

Also.. the post is unreliable as hell. I’d rather be sure my votes cast than rely on the post to get it there on time.

Tinysarah1985 · 04/05/2023 22:48

They refused to accept my police warrant card as ID today. However they were more than happy to accept my student ID card.

MargaretThursday · 04/05/2023 22:49

MaisieMay23 · 04/05/2023 21:05

They asked me at the desk & matched my name in my D/L to the name in the book (roll/list whatever).

Me too... Even though I've known the person checking for over20 years.
Then they checked it again when I sent back for th'selfish vote.
We both thought it was quite funny.

Hmmph · 04/05/2023 22:50

My elderly Mum (who would have voted Conservative) was put off voting as she didn't want to give them a photo. That is how she had understood the publicity - that you had to take a photo of yourself to vote and hand it over at the desk.

I did explain it to her and that she only needed her bus pass or passport, but she wasn't convinced and decided not to go in the end.

GCAcademic · 04/05/2023 22:51

Augend23 · 04/05/2023 22:35

This.

Turnout in my (solidly Labour) ward was so low the polling station had only just got onto their second side of A4 (so maybe 30 voters) by the time I turned up to vote this evening.

Show quote history

I turned up to vote at 9pm and - looking at the list of names and addresses with crossing out of those who had voted - less than 20% had turned up by that point. This is a very safe Tory ward.

HappilyContentTheseDays · 04/05/2023 22:52

This is why I have a postal vote....reading all these replies makes me pleased I don't have to turn up in person at a polling station. And I voted about two and a half weeks ago, plenty of time for even the UK postal system to get it back in time. So much better.

Loria · 04/05/2023 22:54

DoAWheelie · 04/05/2023 21:21

The point was never to make voting more secure. It was to remove votes from poor people who are the most likely to have no ID and most likely to vote labour.

It's working perfectly at its intended goal as voter suppression.

Agree with this.

The Uk incidence of voter fraud is tiny. Negligible. We have more of a problem getting people to vote at all especially in local elections. Therefore this wasn't introduced because there was a need for it. It was introduced because this current government have an interest in certain population sectors not voting.

AlltheFs · 04/05/2023 23:02

Checked only at the desk here.
Not checked on the door but there was only 1 person working-ours is a tiny village hall in a very small village.

It was my neighbour doing the checking/handing out though so it was quite funny really. She knows the name of probably 95% of the ward anyway 😂 Joy of a small community!

Mumof3girlsandaboy · 04/05/2023 23:04

PonyPatter44 · 04/05/2023 21:15

There was noone on the door at our polling station. The poll clerk checked ID and then handed over the ballot papers.

Same

kitsuneghost · 04/05/2023 23:07

Cranmer · 04/05/2023 21:01

They asked to see my ID at the polling station door, but I went to the desk and could have said I was anyone. Should they not check it against your name and address, not just randomly look at the picture at the door?

All this does is put people off voting as they can't be bothered to get their passport out the drawer. Grrrrr

If you aren't voting because you can't be bothered getting a passport out the drawer then you don't deserve a vote.

Loria · 04/05/2023 23:08

What?

Everybody deserves a vote. That's how democracy works.

AlltheFs · 04/05/2023 23:09

lljkk · 04/05/2023 22:31

Young people have photo ID to buy booze or go clubbing.
Old people have bus passes.
Most people in between have something suitable.

Bad form if a young person can't use their railcard ID, though.

Why don't any of you absentee vote? It's so much easier to vote from home and than this voter ID malarky.

It’s further to get to a post box for me than to vote in person, it’s a 90 second stroll to the village hall and a natter on the green for me. It’s nice 😊

Frabbits · 04/05/2023 23:09

kitsuneghost · 04/05/2023 23:07

If you aren't voting because you can't be bothered getting a passport out the drawer then you don't deserve a vote.

Show quote history

🙄

Yuasa · 04/05/2023 23:10

NorthStarRising · 04/05/2023 21:55

The point was never to make voting more secure. It was to remove votes from poor people who are the most likely to have no ID and most likely to vote labour.

My husband has no form of photo ID, so he sorted out a voter identity certificate which is free. Or are you saying other poor people are too lazy or dim to bother?

Adding in additional steps or hurdles inevitably catches some people out. Just as how some UK travellers are now being caught out by the rules around passport validity when travelling to to the EU. As more will be when the EU brings in its visa-waiver scheme.

In this situation the people who get caught out are going to drawn from the pool of those who don’t have a passport, driving licence or similar to hand and that
is poorer people in general. Not everyone is organised like your husband - today crept up on me, but it was no big deal because I had the relevant ID in a drawer. If I’d had to apply for something extra in time there’s a good chance I’d have forgotten until it was too late.

kitsuneghost · 04/05/2023 23:16

We are lucky to live somewhere you get to vote and we are too fn lazy and useless to bother getting (free) id.
I despair.

amoretti · 04/05/2023 23:16

My son couldn't vote today as his passport hasn't been returned from the passport office.

Loria · 04/05/2023 23:24

kitsuneghost · 04/05/2023 23:16

We are lucky to live somewhere you get to vote and we are too fn lazy and useless to bother getting (free) id.
I despair.

Luck has nothing to do with it. Universal suffrage is something that was achieved through political and social struggle in this and other countries. Now a cabinet of millionaires are encroaching on the rights we have won with pettifogging rules about oyster cards and pensioner discounted rail tickets. If you look at that situation and criticise anyone but said millionaires then you are an active agent in your own democratic rights being eroded.

kitkatkitkatkitty · 04/05/2023 23:42

Id think getting a postal vote is the best way if you can't be bothered with ID. You get it two and half weeks before the election (plenty of time to think about it and get in the post).

In terms of it making it to its destination - The Royal Mail specially sort postal votes and hand deliver them directly so there is a slim to no chance of it getting lost.

And if you are closer to a poll station than a post box you can hand it in there. you can even hand it in at your town hall/civic building if you want to make sure it gets there.

So Much easier then the faff of going to a poll station on election day - I don't really understand why people still do these days tbh

MintJulia · 04/05/2023 23:54

MaisieMay23 · 04/05/2023 21:05

They asked me at the desk & matched my name in my D/L to the name in the book (roll/list whatever).

This for me too.

Offthexmaslist · 05/05/2023 00:01

I'm a polling clerk... we checked every id at the desk before issuing ballots despite ABSOLUTELY HATING THIS !! It disenfranchises the poor and is nothing less than Gerrymandering by the Tories but can say nothing as we must remain neutral.. of 897 voters one was refused . ONE too many !! He had an ID card from his very 'public' work .. for the fucking council he worked for !!!

I feel ashamed .

jcyclops · 05/05/2023 00:17

The proposals stem originally from the Tower Hamlets Mayoral Election of 2014 where voter fraud (both in person and postal) was so massive that the whole election was declared void and had to be re-run.

It is the independent Electoral Commission, not the Tories, who proposed 3 requirements to prevent electoral fraud. Voter ID was the third of these, and if Labour had won in 2015, 2017 or 2019 they would have had no choice but to pass a law for its introduction. Labour might have come up with a different list of valid IDs but the law would have been substantially the same.

FYI. The first electoral change was introduction of individual electoral registration instead of one person doing it for the whole household. The second was a ban on parties and their campaigners handling postal and proxy vote applications.

Proven cases of voter fraud are low, even the Tower Hamlets fiasco in 2014 resulted in no criminal prosecutions, but suspected cases are not insignificant. 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 staff were sure had already voted earlier, but there is nothing they could do about it (especially when the person 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.

The rules for postal votes are also due to be tightened, but it was left out of this Voter ID legislation - it may come later. Proposals include tightening up ID checks, introducing online applications, and much tighter restrictions on who can hand in postal votes at polling stations (where it is too late to post the ballot paper). One of the main proposals that people will need to re-apply every few years (2-4?) for a postal vote. Currently, if you apply for a postal vote, you effectively have one for life.

HoppyHop · 05/05/2023 00:25

MuchTooTired · 04/05/2023 22:07

Nobody was on the door at mine, just walked to the main table, was asked for my name, presented my ID, and then my ballot was scanned on to the iPad which I didn’t really think was weird until after I’d posted my vote.

Did everyone else have that happen? Made me feel as though my vote was somehow tied to my identity if anyone could be bothered to check it which I sincerely doubt they would. I’ll remove my tin foil hat now…!

You're not wrong. Your electoral register number is on the list against your name & address and the number from the ballot paper (they are individually numbered on the back) is written next to your name as it is allocated.
I've not seen the scanners but assume they work in the same way.

It is used to check that the number of ballot papers in the box matches those handed out which is double checked at the count.

In theory yes, it could be tracked back to how you voted via your ballot paper. (It has always been this way as far as I know).