Voter suppression: UK Voter ID

[awkwardbydesign]

Look at the ID list. Engage your brain. Try and grasp why so, so many people are describing this as voter suppression. The links posted to Wikipedia, Good Law Project etc are a good starting point. That done do some research on voter suppression in the USA. This is not a new concept. These techniques are very well established.

That can be called evidence. Prepared to bet isn't. I agree with your conclusions, but please stop adding guesses, it does your (and my) position no favours, it is very little different from tabloid journalism. And unnecessary.

 

[Nye Samuel]

What guff from the Tory! Obviously hasn't read the tread.

"Data from the Electoral Commission said that in elections in 2022, which covered local elections in England, Scotland and Wales, elections to the Northern Ireland assembly, a series of mayoral elections in England and six Commons byelections, there were seven allegations of “personation” at polling stations, as the offence is officially known.

There was no action by police in any of these cases because there was either insufficient evidence to proceed or no evidence of wrongdoing, the report found.

There were three allegations of personation involving postal voting, which is not affected by the new ID rules, with one still being investigated."

Spot on gavreid, spot on!

 

[TheDecameron]

Where the Republican Party goes, the Tories are sure to follow.

 

[gavreid]

Just going back a little further there was a very small spike in cases, in Birmingham I believe, in the early 2000s. Clearly it was dealt with effectively under existing legislation.

There was another isolated issue in Tower Hamlets in 2014 which was mired by the Met's failings (no surprises there!), which again was dealt with.

"An "unco-ordinated" police operation meant potential leads were disregarded before the election, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary found."

One issue now is clearly going to be people turning up to vote without their IDs. Will they bother to go home and return? For a local election with poor turnout anyway?

Requiring Proof of Age cards that are not regarded as a valid form of indentification from young voters, will change nothing.

 

[miktec]

What guff from the Tory! Obviously hasn't read the tread.

"Data from the Electoral Commission said that in elections in 2022, which covered local elections in England, Scotland and Wales, elections to the Northern Ireland assembly, a series of mayoral elections in England and six Commons byelections, there were seven allegations of “personation” at polling stations, as the offence is officially known.
"

^^^^^^^^^^
THIS !!

....how non-existent does a problem have to be before it is a non-issue

No doubt the usual tripe press had a different view and plenty of made up garbage to back it up.

 

[Spraggons Den]

Have you ever lived in a town with a very large population of Muslims with a South Asian heritage?

Does Riyadh count...or Manama (capital of Bahrain) before you look it up?

I can assure you a significant minority of them don’t drink alcohol.

Doesn't make sense unless you meant majority instead of minority?

 

[Rockmeister]

As usual - some are really missing the point here (deliberately no doubt).
It is yet another Tory step to derail the democratic process to their advantage.

As others have said - the 'problem' was negligible to start with - the 'solution' deliberately confusing, time consuming to administer and a completely unnecessary bureaucratic hurdle to jump through.

Just more Tory bollox (like their Greenwashing) ... discussing how 'easy' it is to deal with is simply time wasting BS.

There are all sorts of people in the world.
Some walk down a road, find an obstacle, stop and spend a day wondering who placed it there, why they placed it, how that placement is offensive, how best they can now shout...'Look I'm/we're being offended and suppressed' and sit there until dusk, when they return home to be offended again the next day.
Others walking down the same road find an obstacle, look around tp how to get past it, solve that problem and carry on with their walk.
Only one of those people reach their destination and in doing so, help others to achieve the same goal. In this case. to vote.

I don't crticise your need to be a proclaimer, it's a valuable thing to do, I need you to do it because, I'm not much of a proclaimer myself. You need people who actually do stuff. I think you need to ease off on the criticism and judgement, especially since your conclusions are a tad personal and wrong.

 

[miktec]

especially since your conclusions are a tad personal and wrong.

^^^^^
Looks to me like the words of a proclaimer who has come across an obstacle

You seem to spend an inordinate amount of time doing exactly this ... 'the Tories can do no wrong so wind your neck in' ... rather than putting forward a strong defence of their tactics.

 

[Ponty]

There are all sorts of people in the world.
Some walk down a road, find an obstacle, stop and spend a day wondering who placed it there, why they placed it, how that placement is offensive, how best they can now shout...'Look I'm/we're being offended and suppressed' and sit there until dusk, when they return home to be offended again the next day.
Others walking down the same road find an obstacle, look around tp how to get past it, solve that problem and carry on with their walk.
Only one of those people reach their destination and in doing so, help others to achieve the same goal. In this case. to vote.

I don't crticise your need to be a proclaimer, it's a valuable thing to do, I need you to do it because, I'm not much of a proclaimer myself. You need people who actually do stuff. I think you need to ease off on the criticism and judgement, especially since your conclusions are a tad personal and wrong.

Yep, there are those who moan and those who do. If someone wants to vote, they’ll ensure they have whatever is required of them to do so. It’s not difficult. Although judging by the often dismal turnouts, many simply can’t be arsed.

 

[Nye Samuel]

There are all sorts of people in the world.
Some walk down a road, find an obstacle, stop and spend a day wondering who placed it there, why they placed it, how that placement is offensive, how best they can now shout...'Look I'm/we're being offended and suppressed' and sit there until dusk, when they return home to be offended again the next day.
Others walking down the same road find an obstacle, look around tp how to get past it, solve that problem and carry on with their walk.
Only one of those people reach their destination and in doing so, help others to achieve the same goal. In this case. to vote.

I don't crticise your need to be a proclaimer, it's a valuable thing to do, I need you to do it because, I'm not much of a proclaimer myself. You need people who actually do stuff. I think you need to ease off on the criticism and judgement, especially since your conclusions are a tad personal and wrong.

Sophistry!

 

[Rodrat]

My wife and I are very tempted to deliberately turn up with no I. D. But all you would be doing is giving grief to the poor sods who man the polling station. I would complain to my MP but he is a Tory so not a lot of point.

 

[gavreid]

Has the Government written to every eligible voter (except me) informing them clearly of the new requirements and what to do? Are there adverts on telly and in the papers? Do ads appear in YouTube? The instructions will likely appear first on polling cards and not be read.

 

[Tony L]

Has the Government written to every eligible voter (except me) informing them clearly of the new requirements and what to do? Are there adverts on telly and in the papers? Do ads appear in YouTube? The instructions will likely appear first on polling cards and not be read.

I did get a spam leaflet through the door from the local council. The polling card, which came a couple of days ago, also has the new Tory ID rules on the back where no one ever reads. They’ve probably covered themselves legally, though I’d put money on a lower than typical turnout and a lot of stories of people being turned away. The Tories will have run the numbers very carefully, they wouldn’t have forced this policy through if there wasn’t a clear statistical benefit for them.

 

[TheDecameron]

The Tories just like Trump, will do everything to decimate the opposition vote. At least Dame Shirley Porter gave away millions in cheap right to buy council flats to get her votes in. I suppose these days she’d also attempt to stop those declining her offer from turning up to vote.

 

[lordsummit]

Doesn't make sense unless you meant majority instead of minority?

I’m sure you know what I mean. I work in Oldham, I work several days a week with children whose heritage would be described as South-Asian British. I can assure you that drinking is not part of that culture.

 

[Marchbanks]

I decided actions speak louder than words, so I would stick up two fingers and apply for a Voter Authority Certificate even though I didn’t need one. My excuse was that I couldn’t/wouldn’t take any other form of ID when I voted as I’d probably mislay it somewhere in the polling station. I also wanted to see exactly how difficult it was to get one. It took only ten minutes to fill in the form using my phone - my NI number is one of the few things I have committed to memory - and five to take a selfie (also using my phone.) I stuck the two together, sent them off and sat back, looking forward to kicking up a fuss when my application was rejected. Instead, the Certificate arrived a few days later.

 

[Rodrat]

Might back fire with the red wall voters.

 

[eisenach]

I decided actions speak louder than words, so I would stick up two fingers and apply for a Voter Authority Certificate even though I didn’t need one. My excuse was that I couldn’t/wouldn’t take any other form of ID when I voted as I’d probably mislay it somewhere in the polling station. I also wanted to see exactly how difficult it was to get one. It took only ten minutes to fill in the form using my phone - my NI number is one of the few things I have committed to memory - and five to take a selfie (also using my phone.) I stuck the two together, sent them off and sat back, looking forward to kicking up a fuss when my application was rejected. Instead, the Certificate arrived a few days later.

I did exactly the same.

Make 'em pay !

 

[Tony L]

Might back fire with the red wall voters.

They are long gone already. Even with Sir Keir Of Nothing I’d be amazed if every single one didn’t return to Labour with a substantial majority.

 

[Paul R]

As a voter in the USA -we can teach you a thing or two about voter supresion; a.) ID -not needed but there could be massive numbers of vote fraud votes-no evidence of this ?? Heck -next you're going to tell me you don't believe in Satan and angels or alien abduction !! b.) Gerrymandering with computer assistance can really do the trick-districts look bizarre-but they are very likely to deliver the desired result.
Still -the best election stunt has tobe what Putin's party did to try and defeat a comptent and popular mayor (of Moscow ??) -they got three other guys to change their names to the real mayors name -couple of 'em looked a little like the real mayor -and run against him. Waiting for that one to happen here.

In the UK a canny independent ran as a 'Literal Democrat' and showed that a significant number of Liberal Democrats have trouble with their eyes.