General Election 2024: Voter ID laws set to cause more chaos

Elections in the UK are some of the most safe and secure anywhere in the world. 

Out of over 50 million votes cast in 2019, there were TWO proven cases of voter fraud in the UK where a voter’s identity was stolen by another. Voter confidence in the system could scarcely be any higher.

But that didn’t stop the Government from committing to spend up to £180 million over 10 years to bring in some of the most restrictive Voter ID laws in place anywhere in the world.

The impact of this policy is now well documented after this year’s local elections in some parts of England. At least 14,000 people were prevented from voting by the new rules (the real figure will never be known). 

At the forthcoming General Election, with every area voting and much higher turnout, this number will be many times higher and could be close to 100,000..

Back in May 2023,  the free Voter ID that was supposed to ensure that the 2 million people (according to Government figures) without valid Photo ID could vote was only used by a total of 25,000 people. Only 89,000 even applied for it.

Independent research also found that people from ethnic minorities were much more likely to be turned away from polling stations. Some people were even denied their vote despite having the correct ID that polling staff failed to recognise. 

The Chair of the Electoral Commission, John Pullinger, correctly said that “One person turned away is one person too many.” 

Which brings us to the big question - is anyone going to do anything about it?

Campaign groups like Unlock Democracy and the Electoral Reform Society are making the case that Voter ID should be scrapped or changed to allow more forms of ID to be used.

The Electoral Commission has called for changes to be made to tackle the problems Voter ID laws are causing. 

The cross-party House of Lords Select Committee conducted an inquiry into the implementation of Voter ID and identified major problems, many of which we have covered above. They have written to the Government asking them to take action.

Even the Government’s own report on Voter ID could find no conclusive evidence that it is helping tackle the extremely rare form of electoral fraud it was designed to stop. 

And yet there are no signs that anything is going to change before a General Election.

So why not drop it?

A reason why the Government might be resisting changing Voter ID laws was revealed by Jacob Rees-Mogg, a Cabinet Minister at the time these plans were being developed and implemented.

Speaking at the National Conservatism conference in Westminster shortly after the local elections, Mr Rees-Mogg said: "Parties that try and gerrymander end up finding their clever scheme comes back to bite them, as dare I say we found by insisting on voter ID for elections.”

We hope that this isn’t the reason, but, in the absence of action in the face of such conclusive evidence of the failure of Voter ID, people will be sure to speculate about the Government’s motivation.

The facts are indisputable. Tens of thousands of people will lose their vote to stop a practically non-existent form of voter fraud. Even the supporters of the scheme can’t show whether it's working or not. The scheme is costing up to £180 million at a time when Government money is scarce. There is clear evidence that Voter ID laws discriminate against ethnic minorities and less well off citizens.

Unlock Democracy’s message is clear - Voter ID isn’t working and it’s taking away the right to vote from thousands of our citizens. It’s time to ditch it before it can do any more damage at the 2024 General Election.