Mandatory voter ID proposals ‘are a sledgehammer to crack a nut’

PLANS REQUIRING voters to prove their identity before casting their ballot are “deeply flawed”, the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) has warned.

The group said it appeared the plans were a “calculated effort by the Government to make voting harder for some citizens”. Pilot schemes will be in place at five councils in the local elections in England on May 3.

The ERS said personification fraud – in which someone votes while pretending to be someone else – is “incredibly rare” and the introduction of mandatory voter ID “poses more problems than solutions”.

ERS chief executive Darren Hughes said: “It’s hard not to see this as a calculated effort by the Government to make voting harder for some citizens.

“As such it’s vital we think about the risks these changes pose to a free and fair franchise in the UK. We need policy based on hard facts – not rumour and innuendo.”

The ERS is part of a coalition of charities and campaign groups opposed to the change including Age UK, Stonewall, Liberty and the Salvation Army.

The intervention, published today, comes after a leaked letter from the Equality and Human Rights Commission warned the change could have a “disproportionate impact” on voters from minority groups.

Mr Hughes said: “These deeply flawed trials must not be a fait accompli for the Government’s plan to roll out an ill-thought policy.

“Mandatory voter ID is a sledgehammer to crack a nut.”