{"id":8425,"date":"2025-01-14T16:17:15","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T16:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.electoral-reform.org.uk\/?p=8425"},"modified":"2025-01-14T16:23:27","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T16:23:27","slug":"the-government-is-finally-reviewing-the-unnecessary-and-unfair-voter-id-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/the-government-is-finally-reviewing-the-unnecessary-and-unfair-voter-id-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"The Government is finally reviewing the unnecessary and unfair Voter ID rules"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

Voter ID has risen back up the political agenda after the Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, last week confirmed the government is going to \u201clook at\u201d whether to scrap the requirements. Since 2023, people have had to show a form of approved identification at polling stations for most elections to cast their ballot. Ever since the idea was mooted, we have campaigned against it as an unnecessary barrier being that would prevent people casting votes they are entitled to.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the UK the levels of personation fraud – people pretending to be someone else at a polling station to cast a vote – are vanishingly small.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sadly, our concerns have been realised over the last few years as we have seen more than 40,000 people turned away from polling stations over the last two local elections and the general election. This figure is likely to be the tip of the iceberg as it doesn\u2019t capture people who, for instance, simply stayed at home on polling day as they lacked an accepted form of ID.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Voter ID creates absurd situations<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Over the last few elections, we\u2019ve seen the voter ID rules create numerous absurd situations. For example, in last year\u2019s local elections, former PM Boris Johnson – who introduced the legislation \u2013 was<\/span> turned away from a polling station<\/span><\/a> for not having ID. A <\/span>decorated former army officer<\/span><\/a>, who served Afghanistan and Northern Ireland, was also turned away as his veterans\u2019 card wasn\u2019t accepted as ID, something the government has <\/span>since moved to amend<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve <\/span>also heard personal stories from scores of voters<\/span><\/a>, including police officers and nurses, who have been turned away from polling stations as their professional IDs were not accepted at polling stations.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>We and other democracy campaigners have continued to argue that voter ID is having a disproportionate and damaging impact on our democracy by preventing thousands of people from voting, while solving no discernible problem.<\/span>
\n
\n<\/span>Therefore, it was encouraging to hear the Deputy Prime Minister saying <\/span>at a select committee hearing last week<\/span><\/a>:\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cThe one thing I would say is that in all of the reports that we\u2019ve had in the past, in terms of electoral fraud [it] is very, very, very, very minor.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, therefore, we want to enfranchise people into exercising their vote and we\u2019ll look at voter ID as part of that.\u201d<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Democracy on a worrying trajectory<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

This comes as we have just seen the second <\/span>lowest turnout in a general election on record<\/span><\/a> while <\/span>trust in politics is at a record low<\/span><\/a>. It\u2019s clear our democracy is headed on a worrying trajectory and the government needs to take urgent action to set it on a healthier course. In a modern democracy, we should be removing barriers and expanding access to voting, not imposing new barriers that make it harder for people to participate in their democracy.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Voting is a fundamental right and one person being prevented from casting a vote they are entitled to is one too many. At the bare minimum, the government should vastly expand the types of ID people can use at polling stations, but ultimately this damaging policy needs to be scrapped.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you think that voter ID needs to be scrapped? Add your name. \u00a0<\/a> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Voter ID has risen back up the political agenda after the Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, last week confirmed the government is going to \u201clook at\u201d whether to scrap the requirements. Since 2023, people have had to show a form of approved identification at polling stations for most elections to cast their ballot. Ever since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":8429,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130],"tags":[748,749,74],"class_list":["post-8425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-voter-id","tag-election-rules","tag-elections-act-2022","tag-voter-id","feature-category-comment"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}