[Politics] Is a Photo ID requirement for Voting a Good Idea?

[Zeberdi]

A new photo ID scheme is being launched ahead of the Local Elections in May.

Free photo ID scheme for voting launched by government before law change comes into force for local elections

Critics fear new voting rules will block access to democracy for vulnerable and hard to reach sections of society. But the government insists changes before this year's local elections will protect the voting process and make it more secure.

news.sky.com

The Government‘s introduction of mandatory Photo-IDs for elections will be rolled out for local elections in May but is facing wide-ranged criticism .

Using photo ID in British elections will harm democracy, say US civil rights groups

Government warned that proposed ID laws disproportionately affect people from poorer communities

www.theguardian.com

Electoral Reform Society

Voter ID

Millions of people had to bring ID to the polling station for the first time on July 4th 2024.The general election saw 16,000 voters denied the right to vote and blocked from castin

www.electoral-reform.org.uk

Personally I feel forcing voters to upload a digital image of themselves to a gov.uk in order to produce government-issued ID cards before they can vote, is an erosion of civil liberties - there is no way that I am uploading a facial image to a government website in order they can keep my photo-id on a massive database - how long would it be before that got used as a comparative tool in Live Facial Recognition technology used for counter-terroism and police work for example? LFR involves linking cameras to databases containing photos of people. Images from the cameras can then be checked against those photos to see if they match. I would rather not vote personally or they can make do having a gander my drivers licence at the door (or even a passport).

However, the main reason to introduce them is to ensure the integrity of elections and prevent voter fraud. What do people think?

 

[KZNSeagull]

They have your image already if you have a passport or driving licence. If you already have one of these, you do not need to get one these ID's

 

[Zeberdi]

Mods please remove last two vote questions - pressed send too quickly and cant finish the sentences Thanks!

 

[Zeberdi]

They have your image already if you have a passport or driving licence. If you already have one of these, you do not need to get one these ID's

“People hoping to vote using the new IDs will need to go to the government website and enter their National Insurance number, while also uploading a recent digital photo of themselves.”

The new IDs will be mandatory from what I can understand for people without usual ID proof. For postal voting, all I need to do is fill out a form - how will that work?

There are other arguments for and against - not just the postal voting issue. Its introducing ID cards through the backdoor imo - something I have always thought has implications for civil liberties.

 

[pocketseagull]

No it's a terrible idea stolen from Rebublicans with the intention of disenfranchising voting left

 

[drew]

Is anyone really surprised at the depths this scum government will sink to in order to try and retain power!

 

[Rookie]

Disgraceful idea.
Voting is a fundamental right and forcing people to upload a photo is to put further obstacles in the way.

 

[KZNSeagull]

“People hoping to vote using the new IDs will need to go to the government website and enter their National Insurance number, while also uploading a recent digital photo of themselves.”

The new IDs will be mandatory from what I can understand for people without usual ID proof. For postal voting, all I need to do is fill out a form - how will that work?

There are other arguments for and against - not just the postal voting issue. Its introducing ID cards through the backdoor imo - something I have always thought has implications for civil liberties.

No idea how postal voting will work, but I thought the point you were making is that you did not want your image on a government database?

 

[beorhthelm]

we're pretty unusal not to have ID in Europe, people make a very large fuss over something so widely adopted elsewhere. that said bit pointless for poll voting when there's so much oppurtunity for fraud in postal votes.

 

[Zeberdi]

No idea how postal voting will work, but I thought the point you were making is that you did not want your image on a government database?

No, forcing me to upload a digital photo to gov.uk in order to vote online, that’s just one issue that pisses me off personally but there are other points, that effect other people not least those from poorer communities that don’t have driving licences, passports etc. The scheme is also very expensive for something where the need for it is very questionable in the first place - why introduce a free photo-ID scheme when all these IDs are already acceptable

Accepted forms of photo ID

You need to show photo ID when voting at polling stations in some UK elections. Find out about the different types of photo ID accepted.

www.electoralcommission.org.uk

If it is not going to apply to postal or online voting, why not, isn't there more of a risk the electoral system can be open to fraud online or duplicated postal ballots than in person?

 

[Pevenseagull]

If it is true that an old person's bus pass is acceptable.​

but a young person's railcard isn't

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Have you ever tried getting somebody with dementia into a phone booth, align them within the camera limit, and them getting them to look at the screen and sit still long enough to get an acceptable photo.

I tried, but I couldn't do it.

So I can't renew her passport which is now out of date and her driving licence was revoked ages ago. None of those would be acceptable so what is another alternative option?

 

[chickens]

Well, most of the evidence we have on this is from the US where the politics is even more hopelessly divided than here.

The evidence suggests that their introduction of voter ID disproportionately affected poorer sections of the voting public, and led to massive queues in many polling stations. Our way of doing it may be better than the US, but given what happens to fast food franchises when they hit the U.K., I doubt it.

The cost of doing this set against the statistically negligible levels of voter ID fraud seen in our elections suggest it’s a sledgehammer to crack a nut, and is one of the silly gang’s ideas - the same lot who make policy not on its usefulness or suitability for Britain, but on how much it’s likely to annoy their political opponents. Power is absolutely wasted on these clowns.

 

[Albion my Albion]

How do you feel about mail-in absentee voting?

I have voted by absentee ballot (mail-in) for 3 election cycles or for about 12 years in Indiana. And this is one of the US states that wanted to outlaw mail-in voting because they believed Trump's lies about the 2020 election.

 

[Pevenseagull]

If it is true that an old person's bus pass is acceptable.​

but a young person's railcard isn't

f*** knows how that ended up with that format .... I am a lot closer to a bus pass than I am a young person's railcard.

It's bollocks.

 

[studio150]

Just waiting for the riots when potential voters are turned away when they are told they don't look like their ID photo, but they are the same person.

 

[tigertim68]

Just another way the government have of controlling the people of this so called free society

 

[Pevenseagull]

It's being done to stop young people voting.

 

[zefarelly]

Some form of identity is a good idea. There can't be very many people if any at all without any.

 

[KZNSeagull]

No, forcing me to upload a digital photo to gov.uk in order to vote online, that’s just one issue that pisses me off personally but there are other points, that effect other people not least those from poorer communities that don’t have driving licences, passports etc. The scheme is also very expensive for something where the need for it is very questionable in the first place - why introduce a free photo-ID scheme when all these IDs are already acceptable

Accepted forms of photo ID

You need to show photo ID when voting at polling stations in some UK elections. Find out about the different types of photo ID accepted.

www.electoralcommission.org.uk

If it is not going to apply to postal or online voting, why not, isn't there more of a risk the electoral system can be open to fraud online or duplicated postal ballots than in person?

I agree that it is a silly scheme to try to solve something that isn't really an issue currently, but I do find it odd that you can turn up to vote and produce nothing to prove who you are. But that is the British way it seems, all rather trusting. Much more likely to get fraud with postal voting I would have thought.

But I am not sure of what civil liberties implications are of being forced to have some form of photo ID. Many countries have ID cards and it doesn't appear to be an issue. Can you open a bank account in the UK without a drivers licence or passport? I am sure it would not be straight forward without either of those. Storm in a tea cup all round I suspect.