The Simple Solution to Voter Registration that Could Add Up to 8 Million UK Voters to the Electoral Register
In the United Kingdom, the right to vote is under attack. The photo Voter ID requirements will present a new hurdle to people who plan to vote in the upcoming general election.
Although the supposed merits of voter ID have been widely debated, a less discussed and equally pressing issue is the number of people eligible to vote, but who are not registered. They number in their millions, roughly 8 million to be more precise.
The good news is that there is a simple solution. But before addressing this, it’s worth examining the current impact of voter ID laws.
In 2022, the Conservative Government passed the Elections Act which introduced photo identification requirements for voters for the first time in England, Wales and Scotland. In the first hard test of the impact of photo voter ID, in May 2023, at least 14,000 people were blocked from voting in local elections in England. It comes as no surprise therefore that the act has been widely criticised for disenfranchising certain groups. As noted in the Electoral Commission’s analysis of voter ID in the May 2023 elections, students and minorities were the least likely groups to be aware of voter ID requirements.
Unlock Democracy believes that voter ID should be scrapped. The Electoral Commission reports that there were fifty six allegations of voter impersonation in 2019 and only one person convicted. For comparison, government figures show that 1 in 25 voters do not have an eligible photo ID to vote in elections in England, Wales, and Scotland. This equates to over two million people being barred from polling stations.
But while Voter ID stays law, it should be improved as much as possible to minimise disruption and protect the right to vote for all. That includes funding local authorities to run comprehensive information campaigns to significantly raise the awareness of the need for photo voter ID.
A Poisoned Cure?
Recently, I attended an event organised by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy and the Constitution, concerning their recent inquiry into voter ID. This found that voter ID is a “poisoned cure” that does more harm than good. During the event, the panel proposed several measures that would reduce the negative impact of voter ID, including increasing the number of accepted forms of voter ID and increasing facial recognition training for poll workers. To read their full report, click here.
A pressing issue with voter ID at the moment is that people have no way to seek legal recourse if they are denied the right to vote. Worse still, a separate Democracy Volunteers’ inquiry found that non-white passing individuals are more likely to be turned away from polling stations even if they have an acceptable form of identification. As it stands, there is no way for people to legally petition either the Electoral Commission or the UK government if they are denied entry to the polls on election day; this has to change.
The panel also discussed the possibility of adding more forms of identification to the list of acceptable forms of voter ID. Currently, common forms of identification like driving licences and passports are accepted as valid forms of ID at polling stations. Curiously, travel cards for people over the age of 60 are accepted, when travel cards for students are not. Seeing as students are some of the least likely to present valid forms of identification at polling stations, the acceptance of student travel cards (and other forms of ID issued to students) would improve their ability to vote.
The panel also suggested that voters who do not present the correct voter ID should be allowed to sign a “statutory declaration” - a legally binding document that asserts the person is who they claim to be. This would allow people who are denied entry to the polls based on voter ID to still have a way to identify themselves and vote, while also providing legally enforceable consequences if the person votes fraudulently.
A “double barrier” to voting
Voter ID is an unnecessary barrier to participation in elections which must be removed. Another barrier that can be equally as difficult to navigate is voter registration. Currently, there is a “double barrier” for young people and minorities who wish to vote; those who are the most likely to be barred from voting on election day, based on not having voter ID, are also the least likely to be registered to vote. It is surprising therefore that Automatic Voter Registration was not mentioned during the event.
The Electoral Commission estimates that 87% of white people in the UK are registered to vote, whereas only 72% of black people are registered. Additionally, only 60% of people aged 18 - 19 and 67% of people aged 20 - 24 are registered to vote.2 To add insult to injury, young people and minorities are some of the least likely groups to be aware of voter ID requirements, according to a separate report by the Electoral Commission.3
Automatic Voter Registration is a process in which citizens are automatically enrolled on the electoral register when they interact with government offices. Automatic Voter Registration is already present in countries like Finland, Denmark, and Switzerland. If AVR were in place in the UK, the number of people who would be automatically registered to vote each year would be staggering. Over 6.5 million per year could register when applying for a passport, 4 million people could register when updating their driving licence address with the DVLA, and 2.5 million students could be registered through annual student enrolment.
Automatic Voter Registration would greatly ease the “double barrier” that millions of UK citizens face during election season.
Fair, open elections, with high turnouts, are necessary to ensure that democracy is working properly, and elected officials in the UK are representative of all its citizens. Sadly, bureaucratic barriers like voter ID and complicated voter registration have the opposite effect, making our elections more difficult to participate in, weakening our democracy. Although measures like allowing statutory declarations to be made at polling stations and increasing the accepted forms of ID will minimise the damage that voter ID laws have caused, we will only experience a great leap forward in our democracy when AVR is in place and photo voter ID is scrapped. That is what Unlock Democracy is committed to delivering.
Unlock Democracy’s report, “Register Every Voter” outlines how Automatic Voter Registration could be implemented in the UK in greater detail. You can find the full report here.
Written by Jack Reid, intern at Unlock Democracy
1 ‘2019 electoral fraud data’, The Electoral Commission
2 ‘Who is and isn’t registered to vote?’, The Electoral Commission
https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/who-is-registered 2
3 ‘Young people least likely to be aware of voter ID requirement’, The Electoral Commission https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/media-centre/young-people-least-likely-be-aware-voter-id-requirement