Voter ID: A Democratic Deficit
‘Stealing someone’s vote is stealing their voice. Voter fraud is a crime that we cannot allow room for, so the government is stamping out any potential for it to take place in elections’ (Cabinet Office, 2021).
BUT there was only one conviction for voter fraud in all elections in 2019. In Yorkshire a man was convicted after admitting he had voted twice, once in his own name and again in his son’s. He was sentenced to eight weeks in prison suspended for twelve months, fined £50 and banned from voting for five years.
Nevertheless, the government has proceeded to introduce compulsory photographic voter ID for all elections from May 2023 at a cost of £180 million over the next ten years. Rejecting all other advice from: the original ‘Pickles’ Enquiry; the ID trials in 2018 and 2019; the House of Lords amendments and the recommendations of experts, the government are proceeding with the most restrictive and anomalous system of photographic ID.
The government estimates that about 3.5 million people (7.5% of the electorate) do not have such ID. These electors are eligible to apply for a free Voter ID card . By February this year only 20 thousand people had applied. The Electoral Commission found that disadvantaged groups, the unemployed, those renting from local authorities or housing associations, disabled people, people with no qualifications and those who had never voted before were most likely to be affected.
Voter ID was introduced to Northern Ireland in 2002. Turnout at the next election (2005) was down 6.5% and has continued to remain reduced. Meanwhile, about 33% of eligible people don’t vote in our General Elections.
How can we explain this ‘unheard third’? Lack of interest? Lack of knowledge and understanding about government and elections? A first-past-the-post system that creates ‘safe’ seats in which voters feel their vote is irrelevant? Disillusionment with a morally bankrupt ruling political elite? (The Census Analysis of 2022 showed that only 35% trust the Government).
A recent study in the US (Berlinski, N. et al., 2021. The Effects of Unsubstantiated Claims of Voter Fraud on Confidence in Elections. Journal of Experimental Political Science, pp. 1-16) found that claims of voter fraud reduces confidence in electoral integrity and has a ‘corrosive effect’ on trust in the system . The new Voter ID regulations are an expensive, damaging sledgehammer to crack a very small nut. They do nothing to address the real democratic deficit in the UK.
To apply for voter ID card go to https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-photo-id-voter-authority-certificate.
Or why not just apply for a postal vote?