Voters turned away in identity checks chaos
THERE were chaotic scenes last night as voters were turned away from polling stations following the trial of an ID system designed to combat fraud.
Problems arose in five areas piloting the controversial scheme, which requires voters to produce appropriate proof of identity.
Scores of residents, including the elderly, complained they were denied access to ballot boxes because they did not have the right documents. The Cabinet Office initiative, based on a US system, asks voters to bring a photo ID or two documents showing proof of address from an approved list of sources. However, the exact form of ID varies from council to council.
Among the confusion as the country went to the polls for local elections last night the system was branded ‘nonsense’.
Five councils volunteered to take part in the pilot scheme – Bromley in south-east London, Gosport in Hampshire, Swindon, Watford and Woking, Surrey. Pensioner Peter White said he was not allowed to vote in Bromley for the first time since 1967 because he didn’t have a bank card or passport. The 76-year-old said: ‘I can’t vote even though the people know me here and I have been a candidate for the Liberals before. This is a nonsense scheme.’ An 80-year-old woman was ‘fuming’ after being turned away for not having ID with her in Swindon.
Millions of voters went to the polls yesterday for council and mayoral elections in London and across the country.
Polling experts say the Tories may lose ground to Labour in the capital and be left controlling just two councils. The ID trial was brought in after reports of electoral fraud through voter impersonation more than doubled between 2014 and 2016.
Ellie Reeves, Labour MP for Lewisham West, said two voters were turned away because they did not have ID on them.
She tweeted: ‘Very worrying and backs up all the evidence that the voter ID pilot in Bromley is plain wrong.’ Angela Wilkins, leader of the Labour group of councillors in Bromley, said five people were unable to vote and blamed the scheme for causing long delays. She tweeted: ‘Why are we doing this?’
However, an official at a polling station in nearby Sydenham said ‘only a very small percentage’ of voters had forgotten or were unable to provide ID, adding: ‘Voters always have the choice to go home and get some ID.’ Labour councillor Tahir Aziz said a man was turned away from voting at a polling station in Woking because his ID, a Surrey County Council document with his picture on it, was not accepted.
He said: ‘He was fuming. It is having an impact on certain people being disenfranchised by this trial.’ Last night, Labour MP Cat Smith, shadow minister for voter engagement, said: ‘ This was always going to be a sledgehammer to crack a nut.’
An Electoral Commission spokesman said awareness campaigns were carried out informing voters of the changes in pilot scheme areas. A Downing Street spokesman said the ‘overwhelming majority of people are casting their vote without a problem’.
A Labour MP sparked controversy yesterday by urging residents to ‘vote early, vote often’. Warrington MP Faisal Rashid’s tweet comes after claims that scores had voted twice in last year’s general election. He deleted the post, saying it ‘was in no way intended’ to encourage electoral fraud’.
‘Why are we doing this?’