Who is voting tomorrow / Abstaining / spoiling ballots?

[Mr Gus]

Local elections tomorrow.

Annoyed as hell that the folk most likely to fix a vote are the ones who are forcing us to take I.D.
Tempted to take some ID to spoil a ballot by means of complaint at the scenario.

There is less security when ringing the local GP as I.D. verification ..a simple verification process requiring very little from the public, & considering the life of data within seems way less important to the govt (because it would throw a spanner in the works of selling / gifting your data to others)


If you do decide to spoil your ballot be sure to get the staff to log the reason it was spoilt (over the usual reasons)

[Thebeeman]

We are voting but only for our Independent candidate. He's been a councillor on both the Town and Borough for years and mayor of both regularly. The other dross are not worth getting out of bed for. He turns up at every P.C. meeting to feed back from the borough council and take back our local views.

[dan_b]

No local elections for me in SW London. But the ID requirement is as blatant an attempt at voter suppression as you can get. It's appalling.
I quite fancy setting fire to things.

[cycling_mike]

Yes, I have voted.

You need ID to prove your age, to prove who you are, so not sure i get the objection if you think good elections are an important thing.

Without ID it is so easy to vote multiple times so it seems a sensible measure.

[dan_b]

There were only 6 cases of voting fraud in the 2021 General Election. 6.

This is a clear voter suppression exercise designed to disenfranchise groups who the Tories know don't tend to vote for them.
People from ethnic minorities are less likely to have a driving licence or passport than white middle class people.
Younger people are less likely to have driving licence or passport, and they've also made other forms of youth photo-ID (like Oyster Card) not a legal form of ID.

If this really was a fair exercise to reduce voter fraud, then the Govt should have issued everyone with a national photo identity card.

[marshman]

There were only 6 cases of voting fraud in the 2021 General Election. 6.

This is a clear voter suppression exercise designed to disenfranchise groups who the Tories know don't tend to vote for them.
People from ethnic minorities are less likely to have a driving licence or passport than white middle class people.
Younger people are less likely to have driving licence or passport, and they've also made other forms of youth photo-ID (like Oyster Card) not a legal form of ID.

If this really was a fair exercise to reduce voter fraud, then the Govt should have issued everyone with a national photo identity card.

Only 6 reported or confirmed cases. I always thought it was stupid you could just walk into your local polling station and say I am so and so from such and such address and vote, whilst they were looking for your name and address you could also eyeball everyone elses details and come back later for another go using different credentials. Agreed not likely, but possible.

David Blunkett did try to introduce a National ID card back in the early 2000's. but the so called civil liberties lot kicked up such a stink it was dropped.

Personally I have no problem with either a National ID card (would save a lot of hassle at times when proof of ID is required) or having to provide ID to vote.

[cycling_mike]

6 cases of fraud that have been found.

A cheap point but...To paraphrase an saving sessions argument, If i can easily vote 6 or 7 times surely it is OK to game the system as someone else does much worse things.

Most of us have ID. Free ID can easily be applied for so not sure if i see this as a insurmountable barrier.

If folk see the system as corrupt then i don't see the problem with improving the system in this way.

It will be interesting to see if this measure disenfranchises folk, I suspect not.

[dan_b]

The point is, not ALL adults have Government approved ID.
So if the Government introduces a Law to make ID mandatory in order to be able to cast your democratic vote, then they should also provide free voter ID to all adults. Failing to do so automatically disenfranchises those who don't already have the right ID - FOR WHAT EVER REASON.

[Mr Gus]

6 cases of fraud that have been found.

A cheap point but...To paraphrase an saving sessions argument, If i can easily vote 6 or 7 times surely it is OK to game the system as someone else does much worse things.

Most of us have ID. Free ID can easily be applied for so not sure if i see this as a insurmountable barrier.

If folk see the system as corrupt then i don't see the problem with improving the system in this way.

It will be interesting to see if this measure disenfranchises folk, I suspect not.

IF it was that easy Mike, then the problem would have been big for decades & regularly cropped up as endemic within the system, it has not, confidence has long been down to the standard working & general honesty, the fraud, when it has occassionally occurred has generally been associated with dodgy politicians associates.

You also hear of very little vote by post fraud, which could be tighter, but isn't.

[Stig]

David Blunkett did try to introduce a National ID card back in the early 2000's. but the so called civil liberties lot kicked up such a stink it was dropped.

Personally I have no problem with either a National ID card (would save a lot of hassle at times when proof of ID is required) or having to provide ID to vote.

Blunkett could never explain what problem a national ID was going to solve. Needing ID to vote seems to be fixing a problem that was not worth fixing so it's not surprising people are going to be asking what the agenda really is behind this.