Photo ID to vote is a flagrant cladding attack

[Pireck]

You will need photo ID to vote in the general election this year. This won't be a problem for me personally as I have it, but many of the people where I grew up are too poor to drive or travel abroad. Many people in this country don't have valid photo ID, and they shouldn't have to to shell out a significant amount of money they likely don't have in order to cast their vote. An absolutely flagrant attack on the poor and otherwise deprived.

The title is supposed to read classist, not cladding.

Yes

Who is saying the young people are incapable of using their phones?

People are pointing out that any barriers, no matter how insignificant you might consider them to be, can prevent people voting.

Putting in the barrier of requiring voter ID (which is entirely unjustified by data on voter fraud) will prevent some people voting.

That’s not democracy.

So you don’t have a problem with people having to complete the electoral roll @Watchthewindow

No

It’s not ridiculous! There ARE barely any libraries left in many places, and those that still exist have very reduced hours.

It is quite a ball-ache to apply for a provisional license if you have no intention to learn to drive. A voter id is much easier.

@Topofthemountain which they can do. If they choose not to it's laziness

So is this down to exceptionalism? Dozens of other countries in Europe seem to have no issues with Voter ID. What is it about the population of the UK that makes us incapable of completing a very, very simple task that will enable everyone to vote, basically no more onerous as pps have pointed out, than registering to vote, or actually voting. Are the people of the UK lazier? More incompetent? Or are we just too darned special?

How about, as 18 year olds (16 in Scotland)) register to vote, they apply for their voter ID at the same time - there are even links to the application from the online voter registration page.

Perhaps, as you seem to have endless time answering mumsnet, a computer and a “holier than thou” attitude you put it to better use by setting up a website offering your services for helping people apply for free id. For those over worked, underpaid and downtrodden (your words not mine) who may not have access to a computer you can do a national leafleting campaign.

Oh, and for clarification I work 4 days on minimum wage, look after 2 grandchildren, look after and shop for an elderly parent with multiple health issues which has led to numerous hospital apps and I’ve still managed to get photo id.

It was designed to suppress the votes of younger people, but Jacob Rees-Mogg acknowledges it may have backfired.

The only large scale abuse or fraud seems to have been over postal voting in Tower Hamlets, which could be restricted in some way. Yet the man who was disqualified is now allowed to hold public office again.

It's not exceptionalism, China and North Korea have highly advanced voter ID systems but no-one's holding them up as paragons of democracy.
Personation has never been a significant issue here.

@notnowmarmaduke Returning officers don’t deal with electoral fraud, the police and courts do

Is it exceptionalism to believe that certain rights should not be made harder to access? Lots of countries in Europe have armed police roaming the streets as standard. We don’t. Spain shut children in their homes for 42 days during the pandemic- we would not have accepted that. Just because Europe does a thing doesn’t mean it’s always the right thing ( and I say that as a Remainer who is married to a forriner)

Yet they are somehow incapable of obtaining photo ID?

it's been widely advertised for at least a year, it's on the envelope of the polling card, it is on the polling card, it was on the electoral roll form they managed to return...

Wow. You’re amazing.

Why should OP (or anyone else) spend their time cleaning up the government’s £180m mess?

The system doesn’t need to be simplified, or people helped to navigate it. It needs to be scrapped.

Not necessarily incapable.

Forgetful, busy, lazy, lose things, neurodiverse, can’t be arsed. Many reasons for not having / presenting ID.

None of them good enough to disenfranchise someone.

JRM admitted it was gerrymandering, as did some other Tory idiot at the same event.

But yeah, the fact that they’ve wasted millions of £ of public money introducing a system there was no need for is just fine and dandy.

Wow, you managed to get the ID, good for you! Do you think everyone is like you? Or just that only people like you should vote?

Personally I don't care who anyone votes for, just that they are able to exercise their vote as is their right. And I think it should be made as easy as possible for them to do so, which is has been up until now. Does that really make me holier than thou? By some people's low standards, apparently.

And yet they weren't too "Forgetful, busy, lazy, lose things, neurodiverse, can’t be arsed" to register to vote in the first place. if they can manage to register, read the polling card to see where and when they should vote and actually turn up they can manage to find one of the many forms of photo ID or apply for a free one.

A number of local support groups/charities will be able to help people get voter ID You can apply by post so don’t need a printer.

What does having a break during the working day have to do with this issue?
I'm sure plenty of people can apply for voter ID if they find the time. The issue is that not ALL of them will. You mhgth say 'well, they can't want to vote very much, then'. Do you think mot wanting to vote 'very much' is a reason to not be able to? Is just simply wanting to vote enough?

Do you not understand that 2 bits of admin is double the work?

Gosh. Maybe some people shouldn’t be allowed to vote.

Maybe some won't want to vote anyway, I'm not as our local elections are just the police commissioner thing, that's what it says on the polling card. I wouldn't have a clue who to vote for so if I didn't have ID, I wouldn't be bothering at the moment

Ah yes, thank you for bringing up people who don't want to vote at all, which is completely irrelevant to this thread.

I wish we just had ID cards, like other countries do. Other countries that are democracies seem to cope with them, not sure why we don’t have them

Some may not want to vote in the GE so they may not bother to get photo ID, not everyone wants to vote though that may seem strange to some on MN