The bigger issue is that the bill has a whole raft of other changes included alongside voter ID, and they're using arguments such as "other countries have voter ID" to effectively win public support for the entire bill.
I will not engage in a debate on voter id right now because of this (but thanks for attacking the weakest part of my post, using a throwaway :)
The Conservatives have been trying to criminalize all sorts of things since at least back to the 1994 criminal justice and public order act. Yet still people can glue themselves to motorways. Statutes and case law are only part of the picture.
How about not only there being a lack of evidence showing significant election fraud in the UK but there's also positive evidence there is no significant election fraud, and that there are hundreds of thousands of people in the UK who have the right to vote but cannot get ID and adding the extra hurdles and steps to allow these people to vote anyway will discourage at least some from voting?
And that this could potentially unfairly affect the results of elections, which is exactly the problem that voter ID is supposed to prevent
But I'm more inclined to suspect postal fraud. There was talk of students voting twice but whether that was a big thing is unknown. But clearly there has been some level of election fraud going on.
> Isn't this a chicken and egg problem? Without voter ID we don't know whether fraud has taken place or not.
No, they keep a track of who has turned up to vote, if you are putting extra votes in or voting in someone else's name then either the number of votes and number of voters wont tally or you'll start seeing a significant number of people who have voted twice, once from the genuine voter and once the person who was fraudulently voting in someone else's name.
The politics is odd; voters don't want mandatory ID cards, but they seem comfortable with legally requiring ID to rent or buy a house, have a job, have a bank account, and now voting.
What training do those working in polling stations have to decide if your Voter ID matches the presenter? What is your recourse when you're turned away?
For context the government is also proposing:
- Voter ID for voter disenfranchisement (Elections Bill)
- To rig elections in favour of the Conservatives and stifle opposition (Elections Bill)
- All but banning protests (Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill)
There is multi-pronged attack underway which is in no way hyperbole.